MPs turn out for National Pubs Week
MPs and trade figures turned out to help celebrate National Pubs Week today, amid fresh calls for laws to stop pubs being closed for alternative use.
MPs were invited to the event at famous Westminster pub the Red Lion to highlight the difficulties facing pubs and the benefits they bring to communities.
The week was set up by former licensee Inez Ward, while today's event was organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group.
The group's chairman Greg Mulholland renewed calls for pubs to be "enshrined" in planning laws to make it trickier to close them down.
"We should enshrine the pub in the planning law you can't just change it into a café or restaurant - that's wrong," he said.
"There's a lot of doom and gloom because of the smoking ban and all the rest of it, the truth is that they are being used to close profitable pubs.
"The fact is that pub companies and individual developers are using the problems of the pub trade to close pubs that not even 'ought to be' viable - they are viable."
Fellow Liberal Democrat MP, Simon Hughes, showed up to give support. He said: "I probably ought to support pubs because I am the grandson of a brewer and my dad always told us that we had to drink a responsible amount to make sure mum had a decent pension.
"But I also believe that a good local pub is vital for a vibrant local community."
Eric Illsley, MP, said: "This week is National Pub Week so we are in Parliament trying to draw attention to pubs and trying to re-enthuse the public into realising that pubs are valued places to enjoy a pleasant drink and relax and would be a tragedy if we lost any more."
Meanwhile, Inez Ward praised Marston's support of it but said she wanted to see more breweries on board next year.
Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, said the event helped "to draw the attention of parliamentarians to the issues that are facing everybody and, above all, between us - to try and rescue the long standing differences between the pubcos and the lessees so we can turn our attention to scrambling out of the commercial challenges of the recession".
