Beer down the drain as pubs remain closed

Staffordshire’s pubs have been unable to open to customers since early November, when the country was plunged into its second lockdown. When this finished a month later the county was placed into Tier 3 measures, which meant pubs still had to remain closed, before Tier 4 and the third lockdown made restrictions even tighter – including a ban on boozers selling takeaway pints for customers to drink at home.

, At South Staffordshire Council’s licensing and regulatory committee meeting, members were given an update on how licensed premises were faring – and the fate of the beer bought by pubs hoping for Christmas custom.

Councillor Bernard Williams said: “I live in a village that has a community shop and a pub. The community shop is open, the pub is closed. The community shop sells alcohol and the pub is there to sell alcohol.

“In the foreseeable past you used to be able to have an outdoor, where people could take their own bottles and have them filled with beer and they could then be taken away and drunk at home. Is there any possibility at all of such a system coming into our area, where pubs can start trading but from outdoors?”

Licensing officer Michael Pearce responded: “Quite simply, until Mr Johnson and the Government change the legislation, it is as it is.

“As it stands, the draft beers you get normally have a maximum shelf life of 90-120 days. So if we look at the pubs that were stocking up ready for Christmas – and there was quite a few – any beer that they had got will be no good.

“They cannot sell the quantities to pull through the lines, even if people took bottles there and they did change the law. We will have to go through the process again where thousands and thousands of gallons of beer will have to be destroyed and brewing will have to take place again.

“The brewing was stopped last year and it started again, but of course the beer that has been brewed in the interim period has either now been consumed or unfortunately has gone down the drain. Until the Government put fixed changes in place in relation to opening and operating again without any further lockdown, I do not anticipate the larger breweries going ahead and brewing, because they just can’t afford to do it.”

Councillor Williams replied: “That’s a very depressing answer for heavy beer drinkers”.

Mr Pearce added: “A lot of the larger breweries have been taken over in the last 12 months – some by businesses outside the UK – and we are anticipating a number of those larger businesses being streamlined.

“Carlsberg took over Marston’s eventually in October. But we’re already seeing a number of pubs and people being laid off, so we are anticipating the bigger companies and the bigger breweries to be laying off people and closing sites.

“Normally we would see the smaller operators probably going out of business. The inference at the moment is that these are going to be more successful moving forward. We have got a substantial number of smaller businesses and smaller pubs.

“There is a fear that a lot of the bigger ones will be going. If they go we will be losing some finance with that as well.”

Councillor Mike Lawrence asked about Covid rule breaches involving pubs in the district.

He said: “I live in Featherstone and I’m aware of the one at the Red, White and Blue. Can you tell me what sanctions were applied to the licensee and the people found there, and also if there have been other sanctions?

Mr Pearce responded: “With the Red, White and Blue there is currently no Designated Premises Supervisor on the premises. The brewery that own the public house dismissed her with immediate effect. She wasn’t supposed to be on the premises and the police issued fines to the people that were on the premises drinking at that particular time.

“There have been minor breaches but I think that was probably the worst one. There have been a number of ongoing breaches over a period of time – I believe that is down to people stretching the legislation as far as they could, normally around meals. We have had instances where people have been found drinking and if that is the case they have been dealt with.”