Traditional pubs club together

An award-winning licensee is breathing new life into his community by pursuing a pubwatch scheme purely for traditional pubs.

Chris Saddington, who runs Hull's 2007 Best Bar None Pub of the Year - Durty Nelly's - wants to ensure the area is attractive to locals and tourists alike.

The licensee is keen to combat negative press that has focused on drinking in the city.

He believes that renewed interest in traditional pubs, helped by the Publican's​ Proud of Pubs Week, meant the time was right for a specialised pubwatch.

"Traditional pubs have their own generic problems - just as bars or clubs do - so it makes sense to group together," he said. "As much as Best Bar None does a fantastic job and has made real ground here, there's always more that can be done.

"This is about a group of people with shared interests and of a similar age looking after their local area."

Hull's previous pubwatch disbanded six months ago when the chairman stepped down, and Chris was happy to take the lead after 'thrashing the idea out' with PC Gary Parker, a licensing officer for Humberside Police.

PC Walker said: "The area is about to be massively developed and Chris has anticipated the effect this will have and quite rightly wants to get a pubwatch in place prior to the development.

"Putting it in perspective, we have two parallel streets, one is a high street the other has bars with capacity for up to 800.

"There are proper pubs with hand pumps - ones your grandfather would recognise - scattered about between these and they often do not have the security staff that the 'fun bars' can afford'."

The scheme currently has 15 pubs on board and the first meeting is expected to be held in September.