I think it would be useful to have a thread where details of sessions and clubs killed by the Public Entertainment Licence system in England could be posted.

By that I mean that it'd be better to save it for that purpose, and argue out the points of law and the appropriate ways of campaigning etc on another thread. A special thread might be a handy way of collating the information about specific examples.

(Maybe cases where attempts to start up sessions or clubs have run up against these requirements would fit in here as well as existing sessions and clubs forced to close.)

The immediate reason for this thread is that a long standing bluegrass session in The Cock in Stansted Mountfitchet, a few miles from where I live, has had to stop, because the local council has decided to arbitrarily apply the existing law.

The landlord was happy for the session to continue, and looked into the possibility of getting a PEL - but it turned out that this would have required various expensive alterations (though the numbers in the bar during sessions is never as high as it is on some other nights, so public safety cannot be an issue here).

Anyway, last Sunday was the last occasion for the session, which has been going on once a month for at least the last seven years and probably a good bit longer. Friends saying goodbye to each other, and a lot of bitterness felt towards the politicians who are responsible for this happening. A sort of "American Wake," as they used to call them in Ireland

Maybe a few letters to the British Tourist Authority about this might be in order. Here is a site with the address in various countries.