Do you really want our views, Ms May?

We should all be concerned with Home Secretary Theresa May's proposed licensing reforms.

The ridiculously short consultation period demonstrates to me there won't be any consultation at all! The approach is paying lip service to an industry that has made real strides in a number of areas, especially with under-age drinking and Challenge 21/25.

The small number of roadshows and lack of spaces are an insult and again demonstrate the complete lack of influence we have over this coalition and the previous mob. It's important to retain flexible closing hours and I can only hope Ms May understands that the vast majority of pubs operate very well and do not require any further legislation or costs!

The one area we should all agree on, of course, is to eradicate the alcohol-fuelled violence that erupts most weekends on high streets up and down the country.

Supermarkets, I hear you say, it's all their fault with cheap booze, leading to pre-loading and then topping up etc etc. Well, it's not just supermarkets.

The high-street operators have a lot to answer for. The stupid and unnecessary all-you-can-drink for £10 offers, which have been rolled out by a number of operators, helped create the moronic behaviour and, while the majority of those offers have been withdrawn, you still see massive discounting continuing.

Operators cannot allow customers to get legless and then put then out on the streets and not expect some sort of action from the police.

So what options are there? A very simple one, and I have made this point previously in this column, is to close down permanently all those sites continuing to

sell to under-age people or drunks.

A pub or bar with a premises licence valued at £750,000 would be significantly less without. I know from personal experience that when a local authority or the police challenge the licence on one of your pubs it really does focus your attention to resolve the situation.

A further option is to insist that directors of the offending sites take personal responsibility to resolve the problem and not leave the BDM to sort it out!

Finally, the latest increase from Iain Holden at Sky cannot be justified. At a time when the industry is facing such enormous challenges, adding 20% to the financial burden of an operator really is complete madness.

How can Sky be surprised when increased numbers of licensees are turning to a foreign satellite provider (from the EU, of course)?

David Elliott is chairman of Quercus Pub Co​