Pub boss argues Carnage events are not "a good idea

A pub group chief, whose venues are involved in the heavily-criticised Carnage events, has argued the crawls are not "a good idea" and said he will back any managers who want to bar students.

Ian Payne, chairman of Town and City Pub Company and the Bay Restaurant Group, said going forward it will be judged on a "site by site" basis on whether students are let into its venues.

Among the companies' brands are Yates's, Slug and Lettuce and Litten Tree, which have all partcipated in Carnage events.

The Carnage nights, which have attracted a wave of negative press in the past, shot to attention again this month when a participating student, Philip Laing, was caught urinating on a war memorial in Sheffield.

Payne said: "In Sheffield we specifically barred them from coming into our Yates's because they had black marker pens and were writing over everything."

On the events in general, he added: "I don't think it's a good idea having a mob of students going around on a mass pub crawl."

But he stressed it was up to a manager of a venue to decide on whether to let students in.

The National Union of Students (NUS) is running a campaign to stop the company behind Carnage from running more events and has written to councils and MPs highlighting its concerns that they encourage binge-drinking.

But speaking to The Publican​, Paul Bahia, founder of Varsity Leisure Group, which owns the Carnage brand, said a "large proportion" of sites owned by Payne's companies continued to use its services and his comments were "not synonymous" with dealings his managers had had with the venues.

Bahia added: "I reject the claim the events are there to increase consumption. There are no drinks offers and soft drinks are free of charge."

Bahia said Carnage was a name students had come to recognise and "trust" to offer a good service.

Criticism by the NUS was "sour grapes", he added, as Carnage events were now successfully competing against university-run nights.

He said the NUS had no power to ban Carnage events.

On the Laing incident, Bahia said it had not been clarified whether the student had actually attended the event and it had been reported that Laing had drank a bottle of whisky beforehand.