11-May-2006 Morning Advertiser - Community Pubs Face Bleak Future
Yvonne Cleminson painted a grim
picture to MPs
A long-serving host has fired a stark warning to MPs – reduce red tape and spiralling costs or say goodbye to community pubs.
Yvonne Cleminson, licensee at the Cherry Tree in Farnham, Surrey, for 26 years, said she had been left disillusioned and embittered by a barrage of price rises and form filling that has left her close to quitting as profits eroded. With all the bureaucratic nightmares taking place at the moment, community pubs will soon be a thing of the past,” she said. “We must not allow this to happen. They’re as British as fish and chips and ravens in the Tower of London.”
Cleminson, who represents around 100 Greene King tenants on its tenant development group, was called to give evidence at the Community Pub Inquiry’s first session, along with trade bodies the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations, Pub is the Hub and the Campaign for Real Ale. She believes the cost and time involved in applying for premises licence variations and temporary event notices may mean many licensees simply won’t bother. “This is leaving many licensees unlikely to apply for alterations and thus leading to reduced business opportunities and a stagnation of trade.”
She added that business rates had “dramatically increased” in the last five years creating an “enormous burden”. She now pays her local council £1,100 a month for 10 months a year. Cleminson believes Sky’s monopoly has “seriously affected” her financial position. “I have abandoned Sky because I was looking at a fee of £500 a month and have lost a lot of trade because of it. “Government action is needed to address and bring to an end the gross overcharging that Sky, Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) and the Performing Right Society (PRS) deem to be their right.”
“My fear is the community pub and the community it serves will lose licensees of a very good calibre as they become disillusioned with their lot, and are replaced with a less caring and diligent person, bringing the trade into disrepute and disrepair.”
Cleminson suggested small business grants should be made available to community pubs when new legislation is introduced – such as the smoking ban and the Disability Discrimination Act.
PITH Community Pubs Bleak Future MA 20060511.pdf