We operate well-run and orderly pubs'

Ian Payne of Laurel (Morning Advertiser 1 April)criticises JD Wetherspoon for "irresponsible" pricing, yet the pub industry itself was found by thecompetition authorities to be operating a "complex monopoly", pushing up prices beyond the rate of inflation year after year. Since that 1988 report, the gap between pub and off-licence prices has continued to grow and is now at its highest-ever level. Amongst other things, this has resulted in a steady decline in beer consumption in pubs and an increase in consumption at home. During the last 25 years, Wetherspoon has successfully made more than 600 pub licence applications and the allegation has frequently been made by competitors that our pricing levels lead to disorder. However, repeated examination of the evidence by police and the licensing courts has indicated, time after time, that there is no link between the opening ofa Wetherspoon pub and increased crime or disorder in the area: in fact the reverse is often the case with pubs or restaurants that attract a broad cross section of predominantly responsible customers leading to a general improvement in behaviour. Indeed, Mr Payne should consider adopting some of the current advice from Government, local authorities and other interested bodies. For example,reasonably-priced and prominently-displayed soft drinks contribute to sensible drinking. Wetherspoon sells J20 for 99p and mineral water for 89p, compared to about £1.60 and £1.40 respectively at Laurel pubs. Similarly, a coffee costs 79p at Wetherspoon but about £1.50 at Laurel. It has also been frequently demonstrated that pubs which serve a full menu all day, including ours, have less problems than those, like Laurel's, which do not. There are many other areas where Laurel has fallen behind us at Wetherspoon. For example, we have won many awards for training over the years, and recently won the Supreme Training Award from the BII for two years in a row. Unlike Laurel, we operate a 48-hour week for our pub managers and pay about a quarter of our profits to staff as a bonus. Our company is not perfect, but these sorts of factors help to create well run and orderly pubs. Ian Payne and a number of pubco bosses are desperate to find a way of getting prices in pubs up, a view that is not shared, unsurprisingly, by customers or the competition authorities. Instead of criticising Wetherspoon, Mr Payne should look to his laurels and invest more time and money in the areas that really count. Tim Martin Non-Executive Chairman JD Wetherspoon High-street pub chains caused this crisis' JD Wetherspoon is no doubt congratulating itself on leading the battle against binge drinking by axing promotions and cutting the price of soft drinks (Morning Advertiser, 25 March). It's just a pity nobody bothered to mention that this company was one of the chief architects of binge drinking and its associated problems in the first place. Wetherspoon's cheap beer and promotional offers have been notorious for years and led to a price war on the high street in which smaller pubs found themselves simply unable to compete. But it also contributed to much of the binge drinking, loutish behaviour and disorder which has finally persuaded the Government to warn our industry to get its act together or face the consequences. Wetherspoon, and companies like it, have ripped the guts out of many communities because its pricing policies have forced many tied leased and tenanted pubs out of business. Now the industry is being more or less ordered to mend its ways, but as the dust settles, and the trade generally starts to pick up the pieces, let nobody forget who was largely responsible for most of the carnage. I am one of a relative few survivors of the Inntrepreneur era that did untold damage to the leased sector of our industry through the early 1990s. But I am still around to tell the tale and hopeto be alive and kicking when the trade has dealt with this latest crisis, caused in the main, by the antics of our large high-street managed-house pub chains. Harry Sandle Cat & Fiddle Bootle Merseyside Unite now to fight forSt George's Day holiday' I'm delighted that Greene King has joined the campaign lobbying for St George's Day to be declared a national holiday (Morning Advertiser, 1 April), which our research shows could generate an additional £14.1m in revenue for the licensed trade. I wholeheartedly agree with marketing director Adam Collett as he calls for all companies and brands to work together to lobby Government and extend the gauntlet of friendship and co-operation to him. Charles Wells has been running a campaign to have St George's Day declared a national holiday, spearheaded by its Wells Bombardier brand, for five years. A petition of 62,000 signatures to this effect has already been delivered to Downing Street and the current tally shows that nearly 85,000 people have now signed the online petition. More than 250,000 people have visited a specially-created website for the trade (www.thevalueofstgeorge.com) which outlines the benefits of celebrating St George's Day to licensees and offers practical help on how they might do so ­ including the suggestion of adding a charitable element to any licence extension application! The site also assists licensees by publicising their St George's Day activity to an eager English nation. With Wells' Bombardier, England's Patron Pint, already heading the campaign trail, we welcome any additional signatures to our online petition or positive examples from other brewers and pub companies, which will strengthen the case for St George's Day to be listed as a special event in the eyes of Government and magistrates. Whilst we acknowledge it is now the third busiest day of the year for many publicans, let's unite to convince the authorities that the English people do want to celebrate St George's Day and put to the sword the myth that we're an unpatriotic country. Nigel McNally Sales & Marketing Director Charles Wells