A publican who used his shotgun to confront and chase away two burglars yesterday condemned police for failing to turn up to help him. Simon Thomas, licensee at the Anchor Inn in Barcombe, East Sussex held the intruders at gunpoint after catching them red-handed - but they fled in the 50 minutes it took police to arrive - Metro
JD Wetherspoon is widely expected to announce that it has completed a refinancing of its debts when it reports interim results on Thursday. With the pub operator having indicated that like-for-like sales grew a smidgen in the first half and that total sales improved four per cent, thanks to the opening of new pubs, the focus for investors will be the terms of the new banking facilities and what constraints they might have on the group's expansion plans - Financial Times
Pubs across England are to come under pressure from above-inflation increases in business rates from next month, Conservatives have warned. Conservative housing spokesman Grant Shapps said that a revaluation of business rates had produced rises of up to 69% in the rateable value of pubs, with historic coaching inns hardest hit - Press Association
A man has been seriously injured after being shot and stabbed in an Edinburgh pub. Emergency services were called to Jock's Lodge Bar at the junction of Willowbrae Road and Piershill following the attack, which happened at about 8:30 last night. The victim, who is 24, was taken to Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary, where his condition was last night described as being "serious but stable" - The Scotsman
Plans by the UK's biggest pub company to convert a community pub into a housing development have been halted following a BBC investigation. Programme makers uncovered a series of inaccuracies and misleading claims in Punch Taverns' planning application for the Cross Guns pub in Birmingham. The application, which has attracted hundreds of objections, had been due to go before the local housing committee - BBC