Enterprise Inns defends decision to sell Porcupine pub

The comments come as the former pubs minister Bob Neill lashed out at Enterprise once more in a strongly-worded letter refusing a meeting with the pub company.

The letter follows Neill’s attack on Enterprise in the Commons last month when he accused the pubco of deliberately “running down its estate” after it sold the Porcupine in Mottingham, south-east London, to Lidl in a private deal.

Neill, who is MP for Bromley, also in south London, wrote that he had to decline a meeting because “I am rather preoccupied helping my constituents clean up the avoidable mess Enterprise left them in”.

“I cannot begin to describe the level of anger and distress that your actions have caused in Mottingham and I am afraid
that belated efforts to justify them will do very little to reverse the sense of betrayal that residents feel.”

He was replying to a letter he received from Enterprise managing director (property) James Croft after the Parliament debate.

Enterprise told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser that crimes reported at the Porcupine included violent assault, assault with weapons, sexual assault, offences against minors, drug crime and theft.

It added that, despite spending £265,000 on a refurbishment at the pub in 2008, the Porcupine’s beer sales declined by 26% in 2009, 27% in 2010 and 36% in 2011.

Croft said: “Mr Neill made various statements about Enterprise Inns in Parliament on 21 May, which I felt did not fairly represent the facts of the matter.

“I was grateful for the support of Bromley police who allowed me to draw Mr Neill’s attention to the high level of reported criminal activity at the pub.

“Mr Neill has written to decline my invitation to a meeting and has not yet responded to the serious matters that were raised in the letter.

“I do not believe it is polite to comment further until he has had time to do so.”