09:00 - 18 February 2003

The biggest change in licensing laws for over a century will be a "bureaucratic nightmare" according to one Westcountry publican.THE biggest change in licensing laws for over a century will be a "bureaucratic nightmare" according to one Westcountry publican.

John Wilkinson, landlord of The Black Dog Inn, at Black Dog near Crediton, believes the Licensing Bill will force pubs to abandon traditional live music.

He said: "We should be able to put more music on, not less. This is a great little village and the pub is the only amenity, so what we do is important to everyone."

The proposed legislation, which could be law by 2004, will make nearly all forms of live entertainment illegal unless licensed.

The new law would also end the "two-in-a-bar rule", which allows one or two musicians to play in a pub without the landlord needing an entertainments licence.

Landlords would be forced to apply to their local authority for a new premises licence to stage any live music. But because the local authority, fire, police and health and safety may insist upon expensive alterations, there are fears landlords will simply not bother.

And being a former community centre manager in Staffordshire, Mr Wilkinson says he is well used to the pitfalls of "local authority bureaucracy".

He said: "It is very hard complying with all the checks you must go through. You might get an electric check in October, door check in November, and fire escape check in December.

"They all cost money and it just adds to the continual struggle to keep your head above water. It is exactly the same in a pub. I understand the need for safety but there has to be middle ground."

Mr Wilkinson regularly has folk singers and dancers entertain his customers, something which they now feel is under threat.

Mr Wilkinson said: "The atmosphere is brilliant and the tradition of it is very special. But before we plan anything else we need to know what is going on with this Bill. If nobody knows how they are going to be affected it makes a mockery of the entire system. We just don't know what will happen. This law would be full of gaping holes which ultimately will be stuffed with expense. The economies of scale are just wrong. Bigger pubs can afford the bureaucracy. We can't."

And Mr Wilkinson believes the proposed legislation amounts to nothing more than an "entertainment tax".

He said: "It is being brought in on the pretext of noise pollution. But 99 per cent of complaints about pub noise are made when drinkers pile out onto the streets. That is already covered by separate laws. Under this law you would need more licenses to do less. It is a bureaucratic nightmare.

"Call it what it is. It is not a licence, they are simply trying to tax our entertainment."

More than 2,300 readers have now sent in protest forms to the Western Morning News campaign to challenge the Bill.

Robert Brightley, a lawyer working in the music industry based in Mitchell, near Newquay, said: "Music is part of our heritage and that of cultures around the world. It gives pleasure to millions of people and live music is at the heart of this.

"This is a time when the industry is suffering massively from the pirating of recorded music and when public opinion is reacting against manufactured pop. To attack grass roots like this will starve music into a slow but certain death. Music should be encouraged as a priceless part of our culture and not effectively outlawed by such draconian and misguided measures as this."

And Mr Brightely fears that if the Bill becomes law, many small scale music events would have to stop.

He said: "These additional hurdles put in the path of music will simply discourage venues from doing all that is required to comply with the regulations.

"As it stands satellite television broadcasts will be exempt from requiring a licence, but live music will not be. That is a gross injustice which cannot be supported on any sensible grounds."