Top MP to meet licensee campaign group
A pub campaign group has been granted an audience with shadow licensing minister Tobias Ellwood to discuss its concerns over issues affecting the trade.
Tory MP Ellwood is due to meet with organisers of the group 'Save the Great British Pub' at Westminster on June 26.
Ellwood told thePublican.com: "The great British pub is part of Britain's heritage and is under threat, with pubs closing at an astonishing and alarming rate and with the debate surrounding binge-drinking, the pub has a responsible part to play."
Licensees Inez Ward and her husband Craig, of the Mavericks, in Newquay, Cornwall, are organisers of the group. They also lead pressure group, Justice For Licensees, which has members all over the country.
Inez wrote to David Cameron after seeing him in an exclusive interview with The Publican.
She said: "I love this trade, it is a shame to see what's happening to it. Pubs have the credit crunch, the smoking ban, supermarket pricing and pubcos to deal with and we'll be discussing them all with Tobias Ellwood."
The Wards, who have been in the news due to a legal dispute with their landlord Enterprise Inns, launched Justice For Licensees to unite the trade in difficult times; it now has over 300 friends on the social networking site, facebook.
Inez said: "There are a lot of people who want to save the British pub, from licensees to the general public. I've got customers adding me on facebook in uproar at what is happening."
