Witch hunt gathering pace

The tale of the Norfolk licensee who paid a proportion of his annual licence fee and then was pursued by the council in the courts should be a wake-up call to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

Both pub owner and judge were wrong in law, but the blame lies squarely at the feet of the Department, which seems remarkably reluctant ever to clear up its own mistakes.

In spite a numerous calls for the licensing laws to be reviewed and revised, it is now June and we are still waiting for any action at all on any of the issues promised in the summer. There is widespread clamour for a fixed annual date for paying licence fees (not "renewals", as another trade paper persists in calling them) and the revised statutory Guidance is also due out about now.

What has happened? Well, it seems to me that the DCMS has lost the will and momentum to do much more about licensing. It is now the Department of Health and the Home Office that is setting the agenda, and that is mainly prescriptive and punitive. More and more laws are being lined up to clobber the licensed trade and demonise alcohol.

Dave Elliot of Greene King is absolutely right (MA, My Shout, 7 June 2007). The agenda now being pursued seems to be slanted entirely against the licensed trade and, in particular, the community pubs whose only "sin" is to be lumped together with the high-street youth bars under a single licensing system.

With Alcohol Disorder Zones, the Government has reached a low point in relations with the trade. Basically, this idea suggests that retailing alcohol is a negative aspect of society in certain areas and creates disorder and nuisance that retailers should pay for.

I can think of no other measure promulgated against the licensed trade that creates such a chasm of understanding. It flies in the face of all the efforts this industry has made to improve its standards and train its workforce to comply with the law.

It must be strange for trade leaders to be civil to Government ministers these days - but then, they've had lots of practice in saying one thing and thinking another.

It really is time for them to stand up and fight for the licensed trade - as never before - on these crucial issues.