Landlady wants new live music laws to help pubs (From Ledbury Reporter)

Landlady wants new live music laws to help pubs

7:50am Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in News By Paul Broome

A HEREFORDSHIRE landlady says new live music laws could help pubs that are struggling to remain open.

But Di Franklyn, who runs the Crown Inn at Lea, near Ross-on-Wye, says confusion brought about by the new legislation made attempts at broadening her own licence more difficult.

The Live Music Act was introduced at the beginning of this month (October) with the aim of cutting red tape for venues wishing to host acts performing to no more than 200 people, provided music ends by 11pm.

Di says, however, she has wasted £300 on such an application she did not need.

“We wanted a licence to put on live music because it wasn’t covered by our premises licence,” she said.

“But the new act meant we didn’t need a licence for the live music we had asked for.”

Confusion caused through contact with the council licensing teams led to a heated debate during the local authority’s recent regulatory sub-committee meeting.

But Di, who said she will now attempt to recover the £300 spent in fees, has at least the comfort of the new act which she described as a bonus to businesses.

“Without doing things like music we will not survive,” she added.

“Gone are the days when you open the door and people come in. We have to think what we could offer the community.”