Darlington Drinker 176

Darlington Drinker 176

Newsletter of the Darlington Campaign for Real Ale   January - March 2010

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Pub Beer Tie Challenged

THE CAMPAIGN for Real Ale is mounting a legal challenge to a decision by the Office of Fair Trading to reject its complaint against anti-competitive practices in the pub industry.

CAMRA asked the OFT, in a so-called ‘super-complaint’ in July, to take action to address consumer detriment in the industry. The request was refused late last year. CAMRA is entitled to appeal the decision to the Competition Appeals Tribunal and is now doing so.

The super-complaint centred on the need to reform beer tie arrangements to stop large companies exploiting ties that prevent their publicans from buying beer on the open market. Wholesale prices paid by tied publicans are considerably higher - by about £20,000 a year for an average pub - than if the same beer was bought in a competitive market. The arrangement means that pub companies make inflated profits but consumers pay higher prices and experience a restricted range of products on the bar.

Mike Benner of CAMRA said: “We have taken the decision to appeal due to the inability of the OFT to deal with the problems affecting the UK pub sector. “Our complaint was based on securing a fair deal for the pubgoer and building a sustainable future for Britain’s pubs. We believe the OFT did not take reasonable steps to understand the sector and, in particular, why over 50 pubs are closing every week across the UK.

A former member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, Bob Young, said the OFT’s response was as inadequate as CAMRA’s complaint was compelling. “The OFT has not seriously considered whether there is fair competition at a local level which ensures that consumers, or pub landlords for that matter, get the best deal. This is a critical shortcoming.”

The VAT Rascals

GOOD NEWS: the Government deferred the scheduled increase in VAT on alcohol, due to take place at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The bad news: the deferral was for all of six hours.

Treasury minister Stephen Timms described the delay as “welcome news” for pubs and clubs. In truth, the announcement was confirmation of one of the sneakiest of stealth taxes. Why, the uninformed might say: surely drinkers  had the benefit of the temporary reduction in VAT on goods and services from 17.5% to 15% during 2009, and knew it was to revert on 1st January ?.

Well no actually. Unlike for most other items there was no recession relief for drinkers in 2009 - because the VAT reduction on alcohol was deliberately cancelled out by a simultaneous increase in duty designed to keep overall alcohol taxation as it was. But now, while VAT has reverted to its original rate, the duty increase has not. With the consequence that the VAT reversal represents a real increase in alcohol tax and hence price.

On average, a further 6p has been added to the price of a pint of beer - without the Government having the trouble of announcing the tax increase. The rise is forecast to help drive more people out of pubs, leading in time to even more pub closures. These are already running at a record fifty a week across Britain.

*LOBBYING by the whisky industry before Christmas 2008 led to the planned duty rise on spirits then being halved, from the same 8% being imposed on beer and cider to 4%..

Continued preferential treatment towards spirits since the present Government came to power means that, while beer duty has increased by 52% since 1997, spirit duty has risen by just 19%.

Darlington Drinker

.…Twenty-Five Years Ago

“A RECENT SURVEY of real ale avail-ability in England places the Darlington area 92nd out of 94 areas surveyed. The only two parts of the country with a lower proportion of pubs selling traditional beer are also in the North East - Cleveland and Northumberland.

A mere 18% of pubs around here offer their customers proper non-fizzy natural beer. The national average is 55%, and many areas top 80%. So much for the mythical prowess of North East beer. Come on John Smiths, Bass, Scottish & Newcastle and co. - give us more ‘real’ pubs.”

Darlington Drinker 30, December 1984

Rural Refusals

HAMBLETON Council have refused plans to convert pubs in neighbouring North Yorkshire villages to residential use, saying that their loss would be harmful to the villages.

Stephen Greening at the Grey Horse at West Rounton had employed agents to argue his case. Part of it was that “the darts and dominos leagues have recently ended”. Accounts showed that a ‘relatively limited’ profit had been made in 2007 and 2008. The Council concluded that the proposal did not “demonstrate a lack of community need for the facility, that the facility is not viable in the applicant’s or another’s occupation, or that an alternative facility is provided”.

Mike and Carol Oldroyd at the Monks Table at Welbury known as the Duke of Wellington until the couple took it over and made it more ‘restauranty’ in 2007 also employed agents. The planners said their application had “failed to demonstrate that the business it is not financially viable for retention as a public house which is a valuable community facility or demonstrated that there is a lack of community need for the facility. There is inadequate justification to prove that the public house cannot be retained as a community asset for social activities within the village that improve community well-being”.

The couple’s case on financial viability cannot have been helped by the fact that they were trying to sell the property for £675,000 - 35% more than they had paid for it two and a half years earlier. During that period pub values nationally have plummeted. Objections to the closure plans were submitted by both sets of villagers and by Darlington CAMRA, within whose branch area that they lie.

The chairman of Welbury parish council, Chris Brown, said about the Monks Table: “A village pub is the centre of village life with people meeting there. It’s been closed for a few months now but there is a demand for a village pub which serves people food and drink. It used to support the local darts and domino teams but now apart from the church it’s the only amenity left.”

NEIGHBOURING Richmondshire Council, is also dealing with a planning application to axe a longstanding village pub.

Mr S Wilkinson, the owner of the Bay Horse at Middleton Tyas wants to convert and extend the building to create three dwellings within it, and also to build a fourth house on the car park. He cites the “failure of the public house” in his application.

Mr Wilkinson has owned Tyas’s ‘bottom house’ since 1972. He ran it until he retired in 1999 and has leased it out to three successive sets of tenants since then. However, the electricity was cut off in October and the pub has been shut since. Until its sudden closure the Bay Horse hosted meetings of the likes of Middleton Tyas gardening club, a didgeridoo club and was the favoured pub for the village cricket team. It also accommodated pub games such as pool, darts and dominoes.

There is another pub in the village but the Shoulder of Mutton - the ‘top house - is more food-oriented and a hike uphill.

Vernal Pleasures

THE SHORTEST day has been and gone, nights are shortening. To discerning Darlington drinkers and folk fans that points to one thing: Spring Thing 2010.

Yes, the vernal equinox approaches, and brings with it the town’s 24th Annual Spring Folk Festival with, as ever, Darlington Campaign for Real Ale’s first beer festival of the year playing a big part of it. A rearrangement of the bar counter and a switch to full use of handpulls will allow CAMRA’s volunteer staff to serve up to fifty-six great British ales this time, together with eight farmhouse ciders and perries, within the columned confines of the Arts Centre’s East Hall.

The beers will all be from independent craft breweries and will feature a number of festival specials. As ever, a wide range of styles will be present, from milds, bitters, stouts and strong beers to gold, wheat and fruit ales. Also to hand will be a range of classic continental bottled beers, limited edition commemorative glasses and an unmissable CAMRA membership offer. (Who’ll become Darlington CAMRA’s 300th member?)

Very importantly, the beer festival hall will be open to all, not just visitors to the folk events - and will be free of admission charge. Folk ‘Things’ get underway on 17th March, but the beer festival will start on Thursday 18th at 7pm and will continue over four sessions until the casks are drained on the evening of Saturday 20th.

*CAMRA members are needed to help at all sessions, and for the set-up on Monday 15th and dismantling on Sunday 21st. Please contact Festival Organiser Paul Appleton on 07908 558307 as soon as possible with details of when you can work.

Raby Query

THE LOCAL branch of the CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has asked Darlington Council what action it will take to enforce a legal agreement that requires that the Raby Hunt at Summerhouse be used as a public house.

The grade II listed old gem - a pub since at least 1856 - reopened under new owners as a ‘restaurant with rooms’ in October. The restaurant website says it was “formally a pub known as The Raby Hunt Inn”. The new use appears to be a clear breach of a section 106 planning agreement signed by the then-owners and the Council on 5 December 2003.

On its part, the Council agreed to grant planning permission for four dwellings to be developed within the Raby Hunt’s grounds and in place of its lounge bar. In return, the owners covenanted “not to use the pub building or any part thereof otherwise than as a public house”. Section 106 agreements are used to make a proposed development, that would not be permitted otherwise, acceptable in planning terms.

A previous planning application had drawn fierce opposition and been refused by the Council in 2002 on the grounds that it would have “resulted in the permanent loss of the pub to the detriment of community life and the character of Summerhouse village”. The modified application in 2003 was approved because the legal agreement supposedly ensured the retention of the pub. The agreement was specifically binding on all subsequent owners, and was registered as a local land charge to ensure prospective buyers would be aware of that restriction.

The permitted new dwellings were built and sold, and the pub - reduced in size - was sold to a new owner. Landlady Pamela Askey eventually left because of ill health in August 2008.

The present owners, a Mr and Mrs Close, submitted plans for minor physical changes in May 2009 but there was no indication at the time of a change of use.

DARLINGTON RUGBY CLUB is holding a small beer festival at their Blackwell Meadows ground in Grange Road on 20-21 February. There will be around a dozen real ales. At other times, the clubhouse serves real ale on matchdays only.

Perfect Pints

BRITAIN’S ‘Perfect Village’, Heighington (BBC TV 2006), was the focus of Darlington CAMRA’s monthly rural coach crawl in December, with a meandering route to get there. Malcolm Dunstone reports on the pretty perfect choice of cask beers that were enjoyed...

THE TRIP was well supported with only one place empty on the minibus. The group formed the majority in the lounge bar of the Baydale Beck at Low Coniscliffe and enjoyed Hop Back Summer Lightning (a surprise), Camerons’ Strongarm and Black Sheep Bitter. It was 4C outside so no surprise there was no-one in the conservatory !.

Next up, the Duke of Wellington at High Coniscliffe. Only one real ale, Theakston’s Best Bitter, as the house regular, Strongarm, had just arrived and was still settling in the cellar. (There were distribution delays that week - Ed.). Memories surfaced at The Dog, on the A68 near Heighington, when someone said “We left George here five years ago”. It was an occasion when the then-social secretary failed to count the drinkers back onto the bus. We had Black Sheep Bitter and Allendale Wolf this time. An open fire, several bar staff and a good toilet.

The Locomotion One at Heighington Station was very pleasing: open fire, a greeting at the bar and sandwiches. Deuchar’s IPA, Theakston Bitter and Old Speckled Hen were all available.

There was a good atmosphere awaiting at the George & Dragon in Heighington village itself, with two cheery, bustling rooms and Black Sheep and Magnet on handpump. Landlord Paul had warned us earlier that a cellar problem would reduce the usual range of five ales that evening, so we missed out on two Wylam beers.

The village’s next pub, the Bay Horse,  a short walk away on the other green, did have five real ales - Copper Dragon, Speckled Hen, Taylor’s Landlord, Black Sheep Bitter and Magnet. Good company and a friendly barmaid to round off another successful trip, well organised by Pete Fenwick.

*ALL ARE WELCOME on the monthly rural crawls: Click here for details.

FURTHER PRICE reductions - the third in each case - seem to have prompted interest in Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises’ vacant Bay Horse at Great Smeaton and Travellers Rest at Skeeby.

Their starting prices of £250,000 and £225,00 were down to £180k and £150k respectively by late 2009. Agents Fleurets say the Bay Horse is now under offer, whilst details of the Travellers have been removed from their website. DD hopes both will reopen as pubs and return to their former prosperity: we await news with interest.

Border Reviver

WE REGULARLY visit Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town steeped in history, changing from English to Scottish rule and back several times. Anyway, more importantly, pubs…

If you arrive on the train, as you walk out of the station you will see the Castle. Pop in, it has two cask beers; on our last visit a house beer brewed by Hadrian & Border, called Castle, and Northumberland brewery’s Secret Kingdom. From there go straight over the main road and down High Greens to a brilliant local, the Pilot Inn. It has three beers on, all guests: Caledonian’s Deuchars IPA, Broughton Exciseman's 80/- and Hadrian & Border Tyneside Blonde.

Now head back to the main road and off towards town. The next pub with real ale is on the right, the Brewers Arms. This had Mordue Workie Ticket. Carry on and turn right you'll come to the Leaping Salmon, a Wetherspoon pub with the usual regulars and, on our visit, Goff’s Tournament, Rudgate Ruby Mild and Greene King Conkers Bonkers.

Back up to the main road, head towards the town hall, turn right and you’ll find Foxton's - look for the board announcing it as a ‘male crèche: he's safe with us while you go shopping’. We had Deuchars IPA and Brewdog Trashy Blonde. Try their famous steak sandwich; we did and can recommend it.

Opposite this, the Brown Bear has Black Sheep Best Bitter, and down the bottom of the bank the Queen’s Head has Northumberland Secret Kingdom. Now go along Bridge Street. There’s an eating house, the Liquid Lounge, which has Stewart brewery’s Pentland IPA.

At the end, on the corner, is what you’ve been waiting for: the Barrels Ale House. Have a seat in the old dentist’s chair at the bar and order one of the five regularly changing beers such as High House Farm Lily Brewster, Houston Warlock, Brewdog Punk IPA, and Stewart’s Pentland IPA. If you still have the energy, cross the bridge into Tweedmouth, go up the hill, turn left and you'll find - next to the old brewery (now flats) - the Angel, where they have a house beer ‘Duckett’, brewed by Camerons, and Hadrian & Border’s Farne Island.

As you can see, an excellent beer trail, also you could see Berwick Rangers, not far from the Angel, or walk round the walls of the only totally walled town in the UK.

Pete Fenwick & Corinna Russell

’Bye Terry

DARLINGTON CAMRA members were hugely saddened to hear of the death in October, aged 56, of Terry Garnett, the ever-chirpy partner of Sue Carr at the Britannia in Archer Street.

While Sue looked after the bar and the beer, Terry spent countless summer hours festooning the front of the lovely old pub in flowers.

As Mike Amos said so well in the Northern Echo: “He was a great character, an enthusiastic raconteur, a generous friend and a proud and loving family man. The place won’t be the same without him”.

Among the many who will miss Terry will be the Belgian beer lovers from Heikant who come to Darlington for CAMRA’s beer festivals. They invariably spend time in the Brit, enjoying the Strongarm and Terry’s company. Some have even been known to leave with the very (England) shirt off his back...

RICHARD ROBINSON of the Red Lion at Cotherstone was the final winner in Darlington CAMRA's Pub of the Season competition for 2009 by winning the branch's Teesdale category. Richard serves three real ales in the characterful village free house: Jenning’s Cumberland, Caledonian Deuchar’s and a changing guest beer. The award was presented to Richard by the branch’s pubs officer Pete Fenwick. The Old Well in Barnard Castle was the runner up in the competition with the Three Tuns in Eggleston finishing third.

BREWS, NEWS AND VIEWS

THE EMERSON ARMS at Hurworth - named after the village’s most famous son, 18th-century mathematician William Emerson - reopened back in November but this is our first chance to welcome the reappearance of real ale. It’s in the form of Black Sheep’s session Bitter.

THE STATION, a mile down the road at Hurworth Place, is another welcome revival of a briefly-closed pub, this time bought outright as a free house from the previous pub company owners (the guide price had been £250,000). There was no real ale when it reopened in December but manager James Watson hopes to stock handpulled beer in the New Year: ring him on 01325 720552 for updates.

DIARY DATES

TUES 12TH JAN: Darlington CAMRA Branch Meeting: Tanners Hall, Skinnergate. 8pm start. All welcome. 

   FRI 15TH JAN: Rural coach crawl: Scorton, Atley Hill, East Cowton, Great Smeaton, Hornby, Dalton-on-Tees area. 

 TUES 2ND FEB: Darlington CAMRA Branch Meeting: Tap & Spile (upstairs room), Bondgate. 8pm start. All welcome.

  TUES 9TH FEB: North East Regional Meeting: Old Yard Tapas Bar (upstairs room), Bondgate. 7.30pm start. All welcome.

    FRI 12TH FEB: Rural coach crawl: Middleton Tyas, Gilling West, Smallways, East Layton, Ravensworth, Kirby Hill area.

 TUES 2ND MAR: Darlington CAMRA Branch Meeting: Glittering Star, Stonebridge. 8pm start. All welcome. 

   FRI 12TH MAR: Rural coach crawl: Piercebridge, Manfield, Barton, Melsonby, Aldbrough St John area.

                    NOTE: All rural coach crawls depart from Feethams (opposite Town Hall) at 7pm unless otherwise stated.

         For further information and reservations contact Pete Fenwick on 01325 374817 or 07792 093245 or via email by clicking  here.

PLEASE NOTE: If you wish to cancel a reservation on any of the above coach crawls we require at least 48 hours notice otherwise a cancellation fee will be charged.

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Darlington Drinker is published by the Darlington branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. Circulation 3,500. News, articles and letters welcome. All items © Darlington CAMRA but may be reproduced if source acknowledged. Editor: Brendan Boyle, 6 Clareville Road, Darlington DL3 8NG; (01325) 362092; email dd@idnet.com. Additional contributors this issue: Malcolm Dunstone, Pete Fenwick & Corinna Russell. Advertising: Peter Everett (01325) 241388. Ad rates a snip at quarter-page £30, half page £50, full page £80; sixth consecutive insertion free. Branch website: www.darlocamra.org.uk. CAMRA HQ is at 230 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts AL1 4LW; (01727) 867201; see www.camra.org.uk for all other real ale information.