LETTERs
I read your article about the attack on Bolton licensee Ray Sutton ("Licensee's fury after thug is cautioned", MA 23 August 2007) and cannot help but agree with him.
In December 2002 I was violently attacked in my pub in Chichester, West Sussex, after stopping three brothers fighting in my bar.
I was glassed, punched and spat at, my nose was broken in two places, and I needed stitches. Thankfully I use toughened glasses in my pub, hence the broken nose, but not too many deep cuts.
The Pubwatch team in the town did nothing at all that night. The names of the three attackers were supplied, as was a positive ID, but nothing was done to search the town that night.
The police took my statement and those of witnesses, but we heard nothing. About a year later one attacker was arrested after a car crash, the attending copper ran a check, and - hey presto - he was nabbed. A positive ID parade was held, then off to the courts.
On the day of the court hearing, I was given 24 hours' notice by our lovely Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to attend. The hearing was in Brighton, I was in Devon - in very deep snow.
I could not attend at that short notice due to my business, and the CPS threw out the case instead of making another date.
The police and the legal system in this country do nothing for the licensees of today. The pub companies are not interested at all in the safety of the staff who work so hard to maintain the upkeep of their pubs.
My company, Hall & Woodhouse, could not give a damn about my attack, asking only when I would be back at work. My BDM gave me a wide berth.
Mr Sutton has been made to feel totally useless and his attackers are now able to laugh at him, all because the police could not do their job properly - unlike the victim himself.
If the licensee in question had been caught serving this thug, then the police would almost certainly have completed the much easier task of arresting him.
Having now left the pub business and started training for a fresh career, I would tell all potential newcomers to do the same, and stay away from the licensed trade.
It has very poor career prospects, inexperienced BDMs, money-grabbing pub companies, and a Government that simply cannot grasp how much revenue is generated by the trade and goes out of its way to hammer yet more nails into a creaking coffin.
In such circumstances there is little future for a bright, educated individual in the pub trade - only the prospect of long hours, low pay and a public that couldn't give a toss if pubs are there or not.
My heart goes out to Mr Sutton. By the look of him we could so easily have been reading of a murdered licensee - then the police would actually have had to do some work.
Steve Charles
sent via email from stevecharles1966@yahoo.co.uk
Gastropubs aren't up to standard
I've got a real problem with the gastropub concept because in my experience the term is being used as an excuse to serve restaurant food at restaurant prices and to justify lousy service as informal and friendly.
My definition of a gastropub is interesting: trendy food (occasionally) with informal (crap) service (nearly always). I don't think you can justify £13/£15/£17 per main course if your service standards are poor (no matter how good the food is).
I've got used to checking out the latest fashionable gastropub and I just tear my hair out at the amateur service. I gaze with amazement around the dining room at groups of trendy young punters who sit for an hour with nothing in front of them. It's a piss-take.
I believe that we've had a polarization of pub food in this country - two for the price of one Wetherspoons/Hungry Horse on the one hand and gastropubbery on the other. There need to more pubs offering good unpretentious food at reasonable prices in the middle ground.
Carl Smith
The Guinea Grill & the Windmill,
Mayfair,
London
