Gosport Pubwatch bans Mayor and Mayoress from its pubs
Gosport Pubwatch chair Phil Cox confirmed that Councillor Wayne Ronayne was given a six-month ban from the 36 member pubs and clubs and Paula Carter was banned for 12 months after two incident reports were filed separately from two pubs last week.
Cox told the PMA Ronayne and Carter were ejected by police from Wetherspoons pub the Star in Gosport on Wednesday (4 June) after refusing to leave the outlet.
He said the pair were asked to leave by bar staff because they had had too much to drink, and then Carter responded by threatening to close the premises down.
“The Mayoress asked ‘do you know who we are?’ And when the manager said ‘no’ she said: ‘He’s the Mayor and I’m the Mayoress. We can close you down’,” Cox said.
The Mayoress then at-tempted to enter the nearby Nelsons bar where she was again refused and made the same claim, he said.
Cox said complaints were made at a Pubwatch committee meeting on Thursday and he issued a letter to the couple informing them of their bans on Friday.
'It doesn't matter who you are'
“We didn’t treat them any differently to how we would treat anyone else,” Cox said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. The guidelines [on banning orders] are there to make pubs more comfortable, pleasant places to be without abusiveness to staff. They are peers of the town, so they should know better.”
He added that Ronayne and Carter have a right to appeal within 14 days.
JD Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “Management acted 100% correctly in refusing to serve the individuals once they felt they had had enough to drink. The pub, in common with all Wetherspoon pubs, is a member of Pubwatch and they alerted fellow Pubwatch members to the situation.”
Despite repeated attempts, the PMA was unable to speak to Ronayne or Carter. The Mayor of Gosport website is currently offline.
