Peterborough landlord defends decision to ban under 25s from pub

The decision was announced on Tuesday evening (September 22) shortly before Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation to announce tougher measures to combat Covid-19, including an enforced 10pm closure time for pubs.

There has been much debate online about the move but David insisted that he had no choice.

He said: “It is not all of them but we have seen members of that demographic not following the rules, this means not staying seated, accessing the toilets in groups when signs clearly state ‘only one’ and forming large groups across tables.

“I know this has caused a massive stir but over the last month I have received a number of personally attacking emails, letters and complaints from local residents about the pub, anti-social behaviour and noise.

“This is putting undue stress upon me, my team, the local community, my regular older customers and my business which I want to protect and can’t ignore.

“I received a phone call from the police first thing Monday morning, who received further complaints at the weekend, with them pointing out this specific age demographic and telling me that I have to address the issue.

“I’ve had the head of licensing from the council visit us to talk about the issues and what I can do. Therefore, I have made this decision under advisement from the authorities and ultimately if these issues are not addressed I personally will receive a £10k on the spot fine and will be closed.

“It’s that serious, this is out of my hands and a decision I really didn’t want to take.

“We are not kicking them out for good but want to take this opportunity to educate them about the dangers we face at the moment and I’m happy to talk to anyone about it any time.”

While broadly supporting the new 10pm closure rule, David has recognised how tough things will be both for him and all other local pubs.

He added: “I have nothing against it (10pm closures) from that time on you do notice a change in behaviour and people’s inhibitions start to fade.

“The main challenges for us will be around staffing. We have a large garden here so we will have to have staff in to take food and drink to tables, which means at a time when our turnover is dropping, our staffing budget is increasing.

“We may have to look into closing the garden and we’re looking at other ways we can adapt, such as booking our bands to perform earlier and having food available all day. We will be offering more home cooked english food though, real honest good food.

“I would say to people, let’s stick together and we will stay open, it’s going to be hard but I’ve still got a smile on my face.

“We are all in this together and if we all show respect to staff and other customers in the pubs then we can beat this because if we don’t then there will be no pubs for anyone.”