[OLD STEVE] [WORLD OF THE CONTENT] [THE RE-WRITTEN LIST] [LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS] [THE THREE LEVELS]
CHAPTER 46.
Other Factors.
MY BIOGRAPHY.
1. There is little doubt that the Bank was the final straw and no one could argue with that, but if I am honest and fair, if one can be in a case like this, they were not wholly responsible for creating the depression and decline in business that came about in the first place. The Government along with the Breweries started the rot with their 'Beer Orders Acts' and the breaking down of the original system that resulted in the mayhem caused by setting up property companies and bleeding the retail side of the industry dry.
2. We might have weathered that aspect and come out of it alright, even if a little less well off for all our efforts, but when the effects, caused by the local authority, were added, we found ourselves in an impossible, none recoverable situation.
3. Commercial Rates went up by disproportionate amounts as the Local Authority failed to function effectively. They never have, of course, and never will, but at a time of extreme economic decline didn't even understand what was happening let alone be in a position to do anything about it. They doubled and trebled license fees for such things as Music, Fruit Machines and other Gaming Machines. They introduced Health Certificates, not a bad thing in itself but a nuisance and a cost you could have done well without. It cost £40 per person to take the course and then there was the time off 'work' to go do it and of course the natural and the inevitable happened as a result. Those who sent their staff off early got caught out by the more unscrupulous. By those I mean employers who didn't send their staff to take the course but who simply got rid of them and then offered your qualified staff a slightly higher hourly rate of pay to go along, with the certificate that you had paid for, and work for them. So until you did the same to compensate for your losses and redressed the situation there was a lot of movement of staff and all the hassle that goes with that. Even the poorer quality staff, in terms of their ability to do the job, got jobs if they had a certificate and of course the unemployed got their courses paid for, by the state, and so for a while there were the 'unemployable' offering their services and to the Pub Trade that can be very dangerous. We always accepted that most staff would try to rob us or take some sort of advantage, but to employ those that you already knew would do just that, just because they had a certificate, was suicidal.
4. Legislation, purporting to come from the EEC, that uncontrolled cesspit of bullshit and unadulterated crap, as far as I am concerned, came up with the idea that all our standard sized spirit measuring optics would have to be changed, by a certain date, to comply with the new, useless and unwarranted, EEC metric measures. These measures were fractionally larger and created no end of adverse comment from our customers when the prices were adjusted accordingly. They could see no difference, with the naked eye, in the amount dispensed but felt the effect in the pocket and told us so in no uncertain manner. We had to stand the cost of purchasing a minimum of fifty new optics that we used, at anyone time, at the back of our bars and they cost £10 each to replace. Just another of those unnecessary and expensive hassles you could do without. Shortly after that came legislation that altered the different sized glasses in which to dispense wine, thus rendering all existing stock, of several hundred glasses, useless and incurring costs to replace them, and all we had to do, as far as the public, the EEC, the local corporation, the breweries and everyone else was concerned, was stand at the back of the bar and drink with our mates, have fun and make a fortune. The glass and optic manufacturers, who campaigned hard for these changes, were of course very happy chappies, as were all the MP's who served either on the Board's of Directors of the manufacturing companies or accepted consultancy fees for making the right recommendations.
5. Whilst briefly on the subject of the EEC (European Economic Community) I would like to make a point here, if I may. The EEC. There has only ever been ONE referendum, and that was under the Ted Heath Government and anyone, and there are now quite a few of them about, that try and tell you there were two with a resounding 'YES' at each vote, on each occasion, are liars and victims of the bullshit put out by their own 'Spin Doctors.' At the ONE and ONLY referendum the question posed and for a 'yes' or 'no' reply was, 'Do you want to join a free trade area that would be known as the EEC?' The hint was that European Countries would then be free to trade among themselves with no import, export barriers or Customs Duties and nothing else. I thought that very simple idea would be excellent for everyone and voted 'yes'. I did not, as did not the majority of millions of others, vote for all the bureaucratic bullshit, obscene incompetence and interference that we have all had to suffer since then and that will get no better. It is rapidly becoming an empire and no one can stop it, it has gone too far and those in charge, if any one person is actually in charge, are too deeply entrenched and nicely placed to either want to change it or be able to reverse it if they had any conscience. It can only go one way and what happened to the last European Empire that included the United Kingdom, the Roman Empire, where those in charge became corrupt and fought among themselves while the masses suffered? You don't need me to tell you. No more do you need me to tell you what happened to the French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian and British Empires, to name a few. Ask the population of any one of the countries that came under the rule of any of those, so called modern empires, what they think of Empire and how they have faired since then? What happens when they, the EEC bosses, not us the individuals, as we have no say, spend a vast amount of our taxes on arms and raising an army, ostentatiously and initially to protect ourselves from 'outside' aggressors, of course, but then when this army of peace keepers has to be economically viable, used in other words, in order to create work and profits for it's vast backup system and those with a vested interest in it, wealth, power, notoriety, look for an enemy? Do you want them to do that because no matter in which direction they turn they will upset some equally powerful foe? If you do then you are happily looking at world destruction. Perhaps not a bad thing, it would at least clear the air and get rid of the dipsticks and failed politicians who are currently running things.
6. So what about our Pub and the annoying and depressing legislation at a time when we, and most of the industry, could not afford it?
Clean air, again not a bad thing as any none smoker will tell you, but we could still have done without the expense of having to install some very sophisticated and therefore expensive extractors at a time when there was not much cash about and the bloody Tax Inspector Man had had the nerve to ask me when I had last had a holiday. One can only hope that he caught some horrible disease on his luxury holiday and his essentials rotted and fell off.
7. The Town Council was overly influenced and still is, to a large extent, by those with business interests to promote and at one time that influence was very strong from the area along the sea front. They saw a decline in trade partially the result of their own incompetence as elected representatives in the town hall and persuaded the powers that be to make certain modifications to the town that they believed would directly benefit them. They would create a 'Park and Ride' scheme based on the south side of town which would allow all Coaches to drop off their visitors, with pockets full of money, on the sea front and then the coaches would park close by before returning to the sea front area and taking them home again at the end of the day. To make this work even more for their benefit they would close the other large Car Park, on the North side, to Coaches, so forcing them onto the south side and thus stop the visitors from spending their money as they walked down through town and before they got to the sea front. The Coach Park, on the north side, was only one street behind us and when it was used for Coaches and before they closed it, it had anything up to 170 Coaches parked on it each day throughout the season and often beyond the main season. To get to the sea front and into the town they had to pass us and we and the Chip Shop, next door, were the first places they passed where hot food, a drink and most importantly a toilet was to be found, when the one in the car park was queued twice round. You can imagine the devastating effect that had on us, and a lot of other small businesses that relied heavily on them, the cafes and the likes, when they closed that Car Park to Coaches. Sadly the scheme, as the Town Hall and it's incompetents, envisaged it, never really worked because as usual they got their sums wrong and among other things, charged too much for Park and Ride, provided low level security, and as a result drove most of the coaches away from the town altogether. Park and Ride is still operating as they won't back down but now it runs at a tremendous loss to the council or more precisely to their Poll Tax Payers, but the sea front traders and councillors, instrumental in pushing for it in the first place, are not the only reason they are on the town council or if not actually on the council or it's advisory committees, entertain and suck up to those who are. They don't care a damn about anything or anyone just as long as they can get the biggest slice of anything going and someone else, preferably the Tax Payer bares the brunt of the set up costs and any automatic and anticipated losses that are inevitably the norm. They, the councillors that is, or more precisely the Portfolio Holders as they prefer to call themselves these days, the trinket sellers, the butchers, house wives, the painters and decorators, the old folks home proprietors, the rubbish skip hirers and god knows how many other obscure backgrounds that offer little by way of training or expertise for running a local authority, then feel that all they are obligated to do, to clear their conscience, is to make silly statements to the effect that they never envisaged making a profit or covering costs from a scheme, although they claimed it would be profitable and save hundreds of thousands for the town, to get it accepted in the first place, but that it was always envisaged as being a necessary improved facility for the benefit of everyone even if it does now come at a cost.
8. At some time a bright spark or was that several damp squibs decided that Scarborough had the highest incidence of drink related crime and bad behaviour and to show the world that this was true and not a nice place to take or bring up children, lobbied the government into being allowed to pass bye laws that prevented drinking on town centre streets with fines of £100 for offenders. It worked to the extent that it got a few idiots off the streets but the Police didn't have the recourses to pursue prosecutions so they were very few, but the message it put out to the rest of the country and the impression it gave of Scarborough as being a place not to visit, was devastating and has had and will still have a long term effect. Adequate policing was the answer to the problems that should never have been allowed to develop in the first place. When did you last see a Policeman out on the streets? The average kids of today don't know what they look like and if it were not for the television, which portrays a false impression altogether, they would be a long forgotten species.
9. The same applied and similar happened following their enthusiasum to get their hands on public money and stick up CCTV cameras on every town centre corner. They moved the very large groups of noisy but harmless and perhaps some not so harmless, youngsters away from where they were and made them congregate in areas not covered by the new surveillance camera system. There was one camera unit, a very large one, directed right across the front of the Pub and we had never experienced the kind of trouble that this 'eye in the sky' was going to prevent. Now having done the damage by installing these things they are no longer monitored and there is currently a local wrangle going on as to whose responsibility they were, are now, and should be in the future and it is all down to who is going to pay for the running, maintaining and operating of this very expensive equipment, a cost that was probably pushed aside in the rush to grab the initial grant money. Should it be the Police, who need as much money as they can lay their hands on to pay for Early Retirement Pensions, Sick Pay, Overtime and perks, or the local council who for similar reasons plus a big dollop of incompetence to run anything profitably or within an allocated budget, or should it be the County Council who are just as bad as all the rest put together but much bigger? Does it really matter when at the end of the day it will be the Poll Tax payers who foot the bill for yet another 'knee jerk' scheme?
10. As far as the local authority is concerned their eyes have always been bigger than their bellies and one of the latest ones to attract government funding is based on the fact that they are very proud to make it universally known, or at least have managed to attract Parliamentary attention, to the fact that they have allowed the area to deteriorate to such an extent that it has now been classed as a Deprived Area qualifying for EEC Rejuvenation Funding. So proud are they of this fact that they are constantly declaring, in every conceivable direction, just how deprived and rum down they are to ensure they get maximum support and funding so that they can waste it on other hair brained schemes, none of which will do local trade or the economy any real good. Nothing has in the past, in the hands of incompetents, so why should anything in the future and the number of times they have spent funding on stupid and useless schmes, set up quangos and think tanks and set on so many people with obscure titles and un-interpretable terms of reference and all on outrageous salaries, to ensure we get the best, just to get their hands on public money, all of which is raised through our taxes, would form the basis of a television comedy series. I am sure that one of their training videos is a copy of 'Yes Minister' or it might even be 'Black Adder.' Have you ever looked at the CV's of your own town councillors and their backgrounds and skills that can be drawn upon to run a town council? Try it sometime; you might get a shock.
11. A very large proportion of our all year round trade came from the younger end and they would all meet up at the beginning of the evening and then move through the town, from pub to pub before ending the night in a Night Club. The fixed and regular route that they took was known as the 'Town Trail' and most major towns had them and we were no exception. In a one to one and a half hour period we would take over half our daily take and it required a lot of staff working flat out. That was until several changes, outside our control, but emanating from the Town Hall, took place. We had lost the Coach Park to the hair brained Park and Ride, had drinking on the street outside banned and a CCTV camera across our frontage when the local authority decided to spend a vast amount of money demolishing some buildings and opening up the access to another, short stay, car park, almost opposite, as part of a plan to drive traffic onto a multi-storey car park next to it. This multi-storey car park was privately owned and in exchange for the investment the corporation had promised the developer a guaranteed income per annum when they built it and for which they, the corporation, have been paying an arm and a leg towards every year since, as that was another scheme doomed from the start. Who wants to park a car in a multi-storey car park in the middle of town with only one person there to collect, the over the odds, parking fees and act, at the same time, as security while the chances are very high that on your return your car would have either been vandalised or stolen? It was reported somewhere that having paid out in excess of a million pounds to demolish buildings and improve access to it, they were still paying just short of £30,000 a year in subsidies. No wonder the developer is a millionaire and our Poll Tax is at the level it is. Where a large proportion of this, so called, development and road widening took place, there was, on the opposite corner, the Pub, prior to ours in the Town Trail sequence. Following the changes those young people, out on the town trail, with obviosly less to spend than their contemporaries or predecessors; remember the economy of the local area was down for them also, started to leave this pub, by it's side door and cut diagonally across the extended short stay car park, missing out the next two pubs in the trail, ours and the one round the corner and so saving on the cost, or volume, of drinks prior to entering the Night Clubs. This carved off a large percentage of our potential custom, which was bad enough until some idiot took over the other pub, the one after ours and round the corner and deterred decent youngsters. Being an idiot he attracted idiots, turned the place into a den of flashing lights, showed porn movies on the mass of video screens he had installed round the main bar and put 'Gorillas' in bow ties, on the door in his attempt to create some sort of low life mini disco, nightclub that served after time. It didn't take long before the youngsters, having walked the distance and often in the rain, got fed up of getting knocked back when they tried to get in and especially as the noisier and rougher gangs of girls were allowed in and the lads and quieter girls turned away. That meant that a very large proportion soon abandon the corner and started cutting across the car park and the final straw came when one of the major nightclubs closed at the bottom end of town and other venues developed and opened up futher over towards the south side. The Town Trail rerouted completely and cut off our end and headed in a new direction further and back up town. For a short while we still had a few, the older end of the youngsters, if you follow what I mean, that were happy not to end up in a night club and therefore enjoyed the old Town Trail now it was much 'nicer' and quiet. The effect was so devastating that on one single appeal alone I got my Commercial Rates cut by half and I had a second appeal pending a hearing when I left which I was assured would be successful and that, as a result, I could expect an even further reduction. Too little, too late.
12. The banks, breweries and a few others, of course, did not want to know or if they did it was only to enquire what I proposed to do about it?
13. It was during this period that I heard some rather surprising and disturbing facts as to the changes that were taking place among the younger drinkers. The most disturbing was the fact that many of them tried to claim and sadly I could not dispute the fact, that an ever increasing proportion had taken to smoking 'Weed' and then only bought a couple of pints in one or maybe two, pubs before going into the Night Clubs. Many of the girls who were beginning to no longer feel safe out on the streets were developing the habit of meeting in one persons home and drinking bottles of Vodka and Wine, bought cheaply from Supermarkets and then going by taxi straight to a Night Club. Sexual equality was slowly creeping in and the days when all a girl had to do was get dressed up and then chat up the lads to ensure all her drinks, Nightclub entrance, Taxi and Pizza, would be paid for in exchange for a kiss and cuddle on the way home, were rapidly becoming a thing of the past. So the girls were finding it hard to go out and readily told us that if they could not afford to get dressed up and leave home with £40 (1995) in their purse then they couldn't afford to go out. Many of them were also single mothers, were unemployed into the bargain and perhaps had to pay Baby Sitters and their own taxis home. It was no longer safe to walk home and the kiss and cuddle was still expected if they allowed themselves to be chatted up, then what alternatives, they claimed did they have other than to 'Smoke', pop pills and drink neat spirits and cheap wine and cider from Supermarkets to keep down the cost? I must admit that it bothered me but then I was reminded of the time when someone said, a long time ago, 'Your parents despaired for you and their parents for them. You now depair for your children and they despair for your grandchildren. Yet each subsequent generation has always survived and will continue to do so.' Whether that is just an excuse to either clear the conscience of those who feel they could or should do something but either don't because they either do not know how to, or they just can't be bothered, I don't know and perhaps I come somewhere in between all that?
14. In the 'old days' every pub had its Ladies and Gents Dart, Domino and Pool Teams and some, although we never did, football and ladies basketball teams. They were all part of the pub scene and were encouraged because they drew in custom not only during the quieter periods of the year but often during the quieter times during the day. But even these became a bind in the end where things deteriorated to such an extent that visiting teams no longer brought supporters and would arrive at the last minute for the start of the game and then leave, often after only buying one drink and eating the free food, and having played their individual games, to return to their own pub for late night drinking. A situation that rapidly developed was where desperate landlords would flout the law, the law having little desire to do anything about it, and offer perks; first drink free or two free drinks for a win, if they came straight back after the away game and drank after time. Anything to get a few regulars in and hopefully sell them drink. Under these circumstances we often found it very difficult to get full teams for they too were finding it difficult to afford to come out on a regular basis and also the atmosphere and sense of competition and camaraderie had gone. To get the best teams and in a vain attempt to attract custom some landlords stooped to some very low levels. Free drinks, food and the likes only being partially successful they stooped to ringing in, to the organisers, false game results to improve their league positions. One year, when setting up for a finals night and presentation at a local Night Club one landlord calmly walked in and stole several top trophies and later openly displayed them in his pub lounge as having been won by his teams. We were no exception, as regards to trying to keep people to stay and did our fair share of casually running on after time which inevitably lead to people coming out later thus compounding problems because late night drinking didn't put any more money in their pockets with which to buy it but 'beer always tasted better after time,' and who cared if we had to stay up later for the same turnover?
15. When 'All Day Opening' came in we tried, for the first full year to open every hour permitted. Economically that proved to be a waste of time and much to the breweries disgust we and many others, ended up opening less than we had originally done before because the new law now permitted that. Managers fell by the way side by the hundreds as the breweries told them they had to open all the permitted hours, offered them very little by way of increased salary but expecting a percentage increase in sales relative to the number of extra hours. That was stupid as they suffered from exactly the same as we did, except they did get some small increase in pay, as none of this increased opening put any more money in the pockets of the punters with which to buy extra beer in the extended times. They were buying less in terms of volume, already, because the prices of beer had consistently increased. A large proportion of those who came in could not afford to be in so having bought one drink would sit for hours with it, as it was cheaper sitting in a comfortable and warm bar than feeding fifty pence pieces into the gas and electricity meters in a cold and draughty Bed Sit. We in our turn had to be there, when open, and provide them with all the heating and lighting that was associated with the pub when it was open and of course much longer hours meant more staff, who all had to be paid, as my wife and I still had to run the actual, behind the scenes, business. So as far as I was concerned opening all day attracted the wrong sort of people and tied us down to long hours of inactivity, so towards the end we opened less and tried to balance and meet the situation half way.
16. A couple of large groups, the Moors Rescue Team and a Running Group, who only came once a month or perhaps every other month but still brought in large numbers started hinting at 'Perks' and when I refused moved somewhere else where I assume they had been promised something. Good luck to them and also to the daft bugger giving them it. Anyone can work for nothing.
17. We had bi-annual visits from VAT Inspectors who became increasingly keen once the law changed and VAT was applied to food sold in Pubs and on one such visit the inspector had the nerve to say that it was a pleasure to do my accounts and he was surprised at the accuracy of them and therefore was sure I was fiddling him somewhere but just could not find it. Cheeky bastard. Of course he couldn't find anything. There was nothing in there to find and I wish he had told the Tax Inspector about the accuracy of the accounting, during one of their informal chats, but they are not made like that.
18. Things became so bad in the trade that one brewery, thankfully not ours, introduced into their houses, fully automated tills linked to a head office main frame, whereby prices were pre-programmed in and stock was replaced in accordance with that shown through the till as having been sold. Also at eleven o'clock at night the till electronically 'Froze' and couldn't be opened until several hours later, in an attempt to prevent after hours drinking, and then when it did open it would automatically produce a print out that stated how much had to be banked for that day. Any deficiences, in cash, were the Landlords worry. Things were getting bad.
19, A female Health Inspector came in on one occasion, a routine visit before the big one, and in her zeal to find dust, stuck her fingers in a chiller fan, cut them and buggered off and never came back, silly cow.
20. Wholesalers were no longer competitive and charged silly prices so the Supermarkets scored out for more and more and of course the Draymen who 'just happened to have a barrel on board and couldn't possibly take it back because to do so meant someone, who had miscalculated and loaded wrong, back in the yard, would be in big trouble,' did very well indeed selling their surplus.
21. We were not the only trade to suffer due to the general depression and the stupidity of the local authority. The lad next door to us, with a wife and two children, ran a Fish and Chip Restaurant and take away and bought potatoes, 40 bags at a time, three times a week, in summer, to sell just as chips to the people coming off the Coach Park behind us before they closed it, and all that prior to his 'normal' lunch time opening. Also he saw, due to the decline in the local fishing industry, not only a drop in the quality of raw fish, but saw it rise from £7 a stone to £34 a stone (1990) in a very short period of time. He had the good sense to get out, cut his losses and run and how do I know all this? He was and still is my one and only favourite son. He went back to his original profession, retail management and guess where? In Supermarkets, selling beer, wines and spirits among other things, like crisps etc.
22. There were probably hundreds of other minor things that added to our downfall and agony and to relate them, even if I could recall them all, would only bore you to death. If I haven't already done so and if I have, then my apologies. But if you have got this far then why not reward yourself and open another can of beer or something before you continue.
23. Everyone in the trade went to great lengths trying to attract custom with karaoke, quizzes, prize draws and goodness knows what else, few of which were successful and often cost more to promote than they made and it was not long before you realised that while these things were in progress very few were buying or drinking ale.
24. Following on from a casual conversation between a few of us in the bar, where the age of the establishment was being discussed along with the old laws and customs of pubs, I decided that one of them might be a useful gimmick and attract some added attention to the place. So a few days later, I made out, lied, that I had discovered an old law, that had not been repealed, that said that as an old coaching house, at the entrance to the old walled town, which was not true either, as that privilege went to another pub just round the corner, which was there when the town was walled, ours having come along much later. But who cared for at least we could see the remnants of the preserved old town wall, whereas the genuine one, round the corner, could not. But where was I? Oh yes, the old law relating to Coaching Houses that I decided to resurrect. I produced several large posters that declared there was 'Free ale and sustenance for bona fide travellers.' I omitted to say, 'for those paying for the stabling of their horses,' which I believe was an important part of the original law but which had I included it in would have rather scuppered what I had in mind. The dossers and local dropouts were obviosly the first to try it on, all claiming to be gypsies and only temporary residents in town. We soon pissed them off and left them to moan all they wanted and hopefully, by doing so, they would help spread the word. The locals and regulars, who were curious, were assured that it was genuine and true. The first stranger to come in and ask if he qualified, stating that he was on his way to somewhere or other, was assured that he did and while everyone observed, I proceeded to give him a small, spirit sized, glass full of ale and one quarter of a slice of plain white bread. It created a laugh and worked quite well as an attraction until everyone got fed up and winter approached and with it no more visitors from out of town, but overall it didn't attract enough attention or publicity to have any marked effect on sales although it did, on occasions, help to lighten what might otherwise have been a rather dull day.
25. Throughout all this the Banks continued to pressurise local Guest House and Holiday Flat owners to convert to bed sits, so they could then, theoretically, afford to pay off their loans and overdrafts. As bed sits they would fill up the town with state supported dossers who would be there all year round and guarantee a regular income to the accommodation providers from which the Banks expected to get paid. All they cared about was getting their 'pound of flesh' with interest. They had no conscience and cared little that these dossers had little or no personal income and the effect that that had on crime, the economy of the town in general and, as far as we were concerned, pubs in particular.
26. The 'Big boys,' in the hotel and accommodation trade, continued to press the Tourist Board into pursuing the Conference Trade, which helped them, monopolised many local venues and attracted grants and aid from the local public purse, but did little or nothing for the vast majority who could not compete at that level. The Tourist Board continued to maintain that they favoured no particulat group yet never invited the likes of us and the small hoteliers, to attend their lavish social functions that the 'big boys' revelled in and if their advertising rates were anything to go by, you could have fooled me, because their charge rates went up and up until only the 'big boys' and those at the upper end of the middle range, could afford them. They appointed, highly salaried, 'specialists,' supported and paid for by the local authority, government, and the lip service from the hierarchy of the Hotels Association, to promote the town as a major conference centre and offered delegates all sorts of perks, paid for out of the local purse, when they came. The rare Party Political Conferences, that they did manage to attract, the venue being far too small, saw half the town closed down for security reasons, the majority of delegates travelling on a daily basis and I doubt if the economy, as a whole, gained one penny piece, particularly when the astronomical costs, born by us from our taxes, for security were deducted. There was a particular scare at one of these conferences when Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister, was due to visit and speak and where the security services had received intelligence to the effect that there were explosives, arms and ammunition hidden and later found, near the town. From within the Coastguard Service we were loosely involved and it was from that that I conceived the idea and the basis for a Book I would later write, 'Station Calling Coastguard,' under the pen name James P Fernside.
27. Whilst all this and many other thing were going on, somewhere down the line some annual brewery review came up and I pointed out to them that my lease had about four years left to run and would expire twelve months before my actual retirement age and the date when my private pension fund matured. Could they consider extending my lease by one year or if not then two years before it was due to elapse could I apply for a standard three year, roll over, tenancy agreeent? They were very clear and adamant on that point. It would have to be a three year roll over, starting when my lease ran out and not before, and if I wished to terminate it before the three years was up then they would be entitled to invoke the penalty clause that would be in it, where I compensated them, and that would be deducted from an 'in going fee' that I would have to pay 'up front' for the three year agreement. To start with that was certainly not what I wanted and there was no doubt that I was not prepared to accept the additional terms, whereby I paid them an 'in going fee' for a three year tenancy agreement. When it came to presenting their proposals, in writing, from a faceless person in an office, they had moved the goal posts even further. They said that when my lease was up the Pub was scheduled for refurbishment, prior to being re-let out on tenancy, and that if I wanted first call on it, I could have it but not only would I have to accept an unspecified penalty clause for coming out early but I would have to deposit, with them, £40,000 as my ingoing and share of the refurbishment costs. Also the pub would be closed for at least a month to six weeks while the refurbishment work took place and if I proposed to remain in residence I would have to pay the rent, to be negotiated, on the private quarters. The bastards expected me to throw in £40,000, that I didn;t have, pay a month to six weeks rent and a penalty clause to come out early. and recover all this, as well as paying my way, in just eleven months tops and on top of everything else. Sod off. It couldn't even be done under a three year agreement even if I could have raised the money and then been stupid enough to try and stay another two years. Ask the guy who followed me, what happened to him, when he thought he could take it on?
28. We were coming out when the lease ran out whether we liked it or not. But at the time I told them I would think about their proposals.
29. Along with the Bank the Brewery must accept its fair share of the responsibility and reasons why no one got paid in the end.
