Brewery confiscates pub's 'defaced' barrels

By Ellie Bothwell

- Last updated on GMT

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Licensee Helen Brown said Hardknott remoevd the barrels after claiming she 'defaced' them
Licensee Helen Brown said Hardknott remoevd the barrels after claiming she 'defaced' them
A Cumbrian licensee, who put beer barrels outside her pub to stop illegal parking, is appealing for replements after they were confiscated by the brewery.

Helen Brown, who owns the Globe Inn in Hensingham, painted two aluminium beer barrels with flowers and put them outside the pub in order to stop cars blocking the pavement.

She said drivers constantly park outside the pub before visiting shops nearby, and it means pedestrians must walk into the road, which has a blind corner, in order to get past.

However, she said two weeks ago a representative of Hardknott Brewery visited the pub to remove the barrels. Brown said the man claimed she had “defaced them and could be causing criminal damage”.

Brown said the visit came three days after two men from Cumbria County Council had tried to remove them, but failed as they were no longer on the footpath.

'Something needs to be done'

She said: “The brewery said they had received a phone call to come and collect their property, but they wouldn’t say who it was from. But it’s somebody who has had a good look at them, because their embossed name had been painted over.

“I offered to buy them, but he wanted £75 per barrel, so I said ‘just take them’.

“They’ve been here for over six years, but I’m hoping another brewery could give me some more. If anyone’s got any damaged barrels they could send me, I’ll do it again because something needs to be done.”

A Cumbria County Council spokesman said it had an obilgation to keep pavements safe.

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