LETTERs

Pressure mounts in the on-trade

I have six children and run

a pub in Norfolk single-handedly.

Can there be any more screws the powers that be wish to tighten on decent licensees just trying to survive? Business rates up 2p in the pound? They're having a laugh. They'll run us all into the ground, then what?

They should be helping us to cope with all the expense incurred with the new legislation we keep being hit with, all the new licensing and smoking laws etc.

I wish I'd picked the sit-in-a-council-house-and-live-off-the-benefit-system option.

Why bust a gut, just for someone else to pull out the rug every time you think you have your head back above water?

The trials and tribulations that I go through would make one hell of a story - it's just that no one would believe it.

Kate Kedward

Sent via email from kate@kkedward.orangehome.co.uk

Don't push teens towards drugs

In the 18 October issue of the Morning Advertiser, Phil Dixon brought out a very important point regarding the fact that there has never been evidence of any problem concerning consumption (in the on-trade) associated with 16 or 17-year-olds (under the old Licensing Act).

It is also interesting to note that in America where the legal age for the purchase of alcohol has been 21 for a very long time, teenagers turn to illegal drugs instead.

Alcohol is one of our two legal drugs and for very good reason, the strength is clear, and the purchasing processes and ancillary legislation is very tight.

The last thing we should do is encourage teenagers to experiment with illegal drugs and the 18 limit does not support this need.

David R Jones

David R Jones & Co, Financial accountants, Wetherby,

West Yorks

Heading back to the dark ages

Regarding the story about pubs turning to strippers to combat the smoke ban in last week's MA, this is surely stuff from the dark ages of dockside boozers.

If I needed to resort to these sorts of "figures" to source income it would be time to pack it in.

At least I suppose they will be protected from second-hand smoke in the work place.

Alan Taylor

via morningadvertiser.co.uk

The benefits of a bowling green

After reading "Bowling pub sees Sky TV fees slashed" in the 1 November MA, I felt I had to write. Well done Christine Burgess (licensee of the Bridge Inn, Horwich, Bolton). Now we all need a bowling green.

Surely Sky can see that if they did this for all pubs then we would all probably be happy to pay a similar amount per month.

Come on Sky play fair. Reduce monthly costs for all pubs and I am sure you will see foreign satellites being taken out of pubs, which would make everyone a winner. Licensees because they would have something that they need at an affordable price, Sky because they would not have to pay Media Protection Services and others to police the system.

Alan Williams

via morningadvertiser.co.uk