That was an excellent piece by Bob Lloyd.

Our experience over the past few years round here has been that, where pubs have allowed sessions, there haven't been any problems. How far that has been because the local authorities haven't noticed, or have been turning a benevolent blind eye, or have a policy that doesn't see sessions as falling under the entertainment category I couldn't say. It could even have been in some cases that there was a PEL in existence.

That would be in the council areas of Harlow, East Herts and Epping. And it's included pubs where sessions have been regularly flagged up in local papers.

So locally we aren't complaining - but the uncertainty remains, and that probably has made some pubs resistant to the idea of having sessions. And of course, unclear policies can change without warning. And elsewhere the position is clearly very patchy, and bad in some places.

I've thought of approaching local authorities round here for a policy statement - but there's always the worry of that backfiring. "Oh shouldn't we be doing something to stop or regulate this kind of unlicensed activity."

It'd be useful to know where problems have been experienced by sessions, with councils misinterpreting their responsibilities in such a way as to interfere with informal sessions, and how widespread it has been. Is it on the increase? My impression has been that the number of sessions being held in pubs has actually increased over the past decade, but of course that in itself might mean that more places have experienced the kind of problems that Shambles has told us about.