Troubled Rugeley pub escapes booze ban

The Shrew in Rugeley faced a 28-day suspension of its licence after serving two under-age drinkers as part of a police test purchase operation. It was the second failure in two years for the pub.

Now the licence holder, Trust Inns, has agreed to provide all its staff with training from a recognised external company within 28 days and follow it up with in-house refresher courses every two months. The compromise was reached at a licence review hearing called by Cannock Chase Council at the request of Staffordshire Police.

But licensing sub-committee chairman Councillor Doris Grice cautioned that there would be no more chances.

She said: "This is a warning to both the licence holder and the designated premises supervisor that they must work together to ensure licence conditions are complied with in order to avoid the police bringing them before another review."

She said a licence suspension would be inevitable next time. Landlord John Stead said afterwards: "It's a relief although we're disappointed that it got to this point."

The pub in Market Place was also criticised for 15 incidents at the pub in the last 12 months, seven of them violent.

They included a man being assaulted in the bar in September last year and, on another night, a drunken 14-year-old girl who collapsed there after being at a party elsewhere. She suffered a fit and an ambulance had to be called.

But solicitor Tim Shield, speaking for Trust Inns, told the sub-committee that the pub might not recover from a ban.

He said the staff member responsible for the test sale in August had been on his own behind the bar at the time and had made 'a bad judgment call.'

The committee heard he had since resigned, saying he was "full of regret for letting the team down".