Pub blackballs councillors over planning row

5:43pm Thursday 27th December 2007

By Lawrence Marzouk

Carol-singing councillors have been banned from their village pub because they objected to the landlord's new smoking shelter.

Publican Charlie Powell saw red when the 12-strong troupe of singers turned up at his pub to raise money for charity.

He slapped the entire parish council with life bans after members had expressed concern about a shelter he built at the Grade II listed White Hart in Catsfield, near Battle, when the smoking ban was introduced in July.

Catsfield Parish Council chairman John Overall, 65, said: "Local councillors are often seen as killjoys but this chap takes the biscuit. He's a real Scrooge.

"We were only trying to raise a bit of cash for the local hospice, but he wouldn't have any of it.

"Considering it's a village pub, it's hard to believe how many people in the village are banned from it.

"It wins the local pub of the year competition every year, but none of the villagers can go in there. It's ridiculous."

Fellow councillor Peter Josling, 50, said the councillors were not the only people to have been barred from the pub.

He added: "It was a very cold night, but the landlord wasted no time in throwing us all out."

Mel Powell, who runs the pub with husband Charlie, said: "Once someone is barred from the pub we're not going to let them in for any reason."

In 2006, the White Hart, in The Green, won Rother pub of the year for the third time a row but it did not retain the prize this year.

The pub was built in 1703, the same year when the diarist Samuel Pepys died and Buckingham Palace was built.

It is well known for its long bar with timber beams, open fire and wide selection of malt whiskies.

The Powells successfully applied to Rother District Council for permission to put up a smoking shelter despite the objections from Catsfield councillors.

Landlords across the county have been changing their opening hours and building shelters to cope with the new smoking ban.

One venue in Hove has even applied to bring in strippers in a bid to pay the bills after the manager said the new legislation had killed business.

The ban led to neighbours in Cheltenham Place in Brighton saying they were fed up with antisocial drinkers creating disturbances outside their homes late into the night.

A Keep Britain Tidy survey has revealed a 43 per cent rise in the amount of cigarette butts dropped on pavements since the smoking ban came into force.