The Royal Pier in Aberystwyth is Best Bar None winner 2013

Landlords Lee and Sian Price were awarded at BBN’s parliamentary reception at the House of Lords last night, while five other pubs were shortlisted - the Drayton Arms in South Kensington, London, the Plug in Sheffield, the Rose in Bedford, the Sound in Cornwall and the Varsity in Durham.

The award scheme, supported by the Home Office, promotes responsible management and operation of alcohol licensed premises.  

National director of BBN Simon Jackson, who presented the awards, stressed that BBN would continue to work hard to promote the pub industry and make the scheme the “first point of call” when policymakers are looking at delivering solutions to local issues at a local level.

“We will show that there are alternatives to enforcement, providing solutions to many issues which are sometimes wrongly attributed to the night-time economy,” he said.

“We need to focus on promoting the industry rather than defending it. The pub trade is a great industry and makes a real economic contribution. It makes a real social contribution and it is essential to the economy. UK plc would suffer without it.”

Jackson also said that BBN is adapting to the possibility of early morning restriction orders and late night levies, both of which have the potential to have “dramatic effects on trade, employment and the local economy".

'Push back by being better'​

Chairman of BBN and licensing barrister Philip Kolvin QC introduced the ceremony and also expressed his concerns with recent licensing regulation. He said that the licence is an important document but an “irreducible minimum of regulation” which is neither aspirational nor voluntary.

“Best Bar None has always been fantastically valuable. It’s a wonderful scheme and one worth associating with. But in an age of austerity it ceases to be just good and it becomes imperative,” he said.

“We’re ceasing to see regulation based on regulatory needs; we’re beginning to see regulation based on economy. We’ve seen this most particularly this year with early morning restriction orders and late-night levies.

“You can’t complain about these laws - they’re laws, and they’re deployable by local authorities and by the police. So either the tide of regulation comes towards the night time economy and pushes things like EMROs and the late night levy, or we push back. And you push back by being better. And that’s what Best Bar None is doing. It’s making bars better.”

Kolvin praised licensees for their enthusiasm and support of the scheme and for working hard to make their premises safer for customers. He asked everyone to propagate the name of Best Bar None in their local towns to provide an economic return for the bars that are part of the scheme and “win hearts and minds” locally as well as politically.