THE GUV'NOR

The licensee of the Woolpack Inn in Islip, Northamptonshire, argues that the big winners in the new licensing era will be the supermarkets and town-centre pub chains

Sue Roberts

Well, it's finally with us. Yes, I am talking about the Licensing Act and our new permitted hours. I applied for, and was granted, a licence from 10pm until 2am, with 3am for special occasions. Will I be using it? Well, not most of the time.

Like the majority of hard-working tenants, lessees and freeholders I have to balance my books and my time. It will hardly be worth it on a wet Tuesday night in February waiting for a couple of people to finish their pints at 1.30am.

The fact for most small town and village pubs is that our customers have a certain amount of money to spend on going out each week, and that stays the same, no matter how long we stay open.

I will use my extended hours on a Friday night and will probably have to pay my kitchen and bar staff to stay later. On Saturday night, unless we are running a function, people will still drift off between 10.30pm and 12.

We all know who benefits from the longer hours the most and, without wanting to keep on banging on about it, it's the Big Boys. The ones that have turned town centres into no-go areas and driven good licensees out.

I started in pub management. My husband and I ran pubs and we knew it was up to us to keep an orderly house. Our average stay in a pub was seven years. Anyone with a stay that long now, would expect to be on the board!

The shift away from the manager holding the licence for the premises can only be good for pub owners. My husband and I had some battles in our time with head office, because we knew what was right for our pub. Who will care now?

The other big winners are superstores. One of my staff works in one, on the late shift, and has been told they will get no extra security and cannot serve anyone under 21 after 11pm. Is a woman aged 50-plus going to question a group of fairly inebriated youths? I think not.

There must also be a reason why teens hang around at supermarkets all night. It's all so hypercritical. It's not middle-class mums buying Pinot Grigio at 2am that will boost their profits is it?

So I repeat my challenge made to Andrea Thompson in the Daily Mail. Come and work for me one Friday night. See how the normal folk of middle England spend their time and money.

It'll be a hell of a lot more fun than she had with Wetherspoon's, and the only directives she will get from head office will be me telling her to clear tables and making sure she gives the right change.