Two Wetherspoons pubs miss out on 99p offer

Two JD Wetherspoon pubs are missing out on its 99p offer to comply with a town's stance on minimum pricing, it has emerged.

A police and council initiative running in Bedford, called Bed:Safe, means pubs charge at least £1.50 for a pint of beer.

And Wetherspoons' pubs the Bankers Draft and Pilgrims Progress are complying by not running the Greene King IPA 99p offer, which is opertaing in the rest of the the company's 713-strong estate.

However a spokesman for Wetherspoons said it had not signed up to the scheme. "We choose as a company in this particular town not to serve a pint for under £1.50," he said. "We have always made it clear we do not sign up to minimum pricing."

Martin Rawlings, the British Beer & Pub Association's director of pub & leisure, warned it is illegal for pubs to agree a minimum price with each other.

"The police aren't the ones at risk, nor the council, it's the publicans," he said.

"Agreeing a price is a breach of competition law and if found guilty you can lose 10 per cent of your turnover."

However a spokesman for Bedfordshire Council said pubs had been issued with pricing guidance, which they agreed to support, but nothing had been signed.

The £1.50 minimum price has been running since 2005, as part of Bed:Safe, and according to the council is designed to help stop "drunk and disorderly behaviour".

However the minimum price does not apply to supermarkets in Bedford.

• The Publican's​ Make it the Minimum campaign is aiming to force the government to bring in a minimum price of 50p on a unit of alcohol to help stamp out irresponsible off-trade cut-price alcohol deals. For more information click here: Make it the Minimum​