CAMRA fears gastro threat

Pubs should be forced to apply for planning permission before they can sell food to drinkers, according to members of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

Britain's traditional boozers are under threat from the rise of the gastropub, the consumer group claims, and should concentrate on serving beer instead of food.

"Pubs are losing their screens, brasses and mirrors -and their character - and becoming anonymous eating boxes," CAMRA member Roger Warhurst told London newspaper Metro.

"You do not need planning permission to change from just serving drinks to selling hot food. We want this to change. We are trying to save the back-street local."

Fellow CAMRA member Robin Forshaw-Wilson agreed: "We think a pub should be a pub. They have been around since the Saxons and Normans.

"There should be some way to protect them. We need legislation."

But Steve McGinnes, food marketing manager for London brewer Fuller's said serving food was vital to all sorts of pubs - even traditional boozers.

"We have many traditional pubs that serve excellent food alongside award-winning beers in a great environment," he said.

"Pub food enhances the pubs as it makes eating out more accessible for many people. It allows them to try food in a relaxed, informal environment, which in turn makes them more comfortable than perhaps they would feel in a four star week restaurant."

At the moment restaurants and pubs are in the same classification for planning permission meaning changing from one to the other - or anything in between such as a gastropub or food-led bar - does not require new planning permission.

But the government is considering changing the law, which would mean planning permission would be needed to change a pub into a restaurant or vice versa, a move supported by CAMRA.

With the lines between pubs and restaurants become increasingly blurry, a change in the law could mean licensees would be forced to apply for permission to serve meals, with no guarantee that permission would be granted.

Such a move could be devastating for pubs that rely on food sales and could even force some pubs out of business.