Town hall could call time on pub landlord

A LANDLORD who breached Covid restrictions faces a wait to discover whether he will be allowed to keep his licence.

David Foulstone has kept the Woodman Inn, on Hartley Street, Dewsbury, for 17 years.

But West Yorkshire Police has called for him to be stripped of his licence following a string of incidents in or outside the pub over the past 18 months – including allowing people in to watch Leeds United’s FA Cup fixture in January.

Evidence was presented to Kirklees Council’s three-member Licensing Panel on Wednesday, during a virtual meeting that lasted more than two hours.

The meeting went into private session for 40 minutes to view a video of the police’s visit to the pub in January.

Councillors are thought to have made their decision but they declined to reveal it in public as is usually done.

Panel chair, Clr Amanda Pinnock, said a written decision on the pub’s future would be sent to the brewery and Mr Foulstone.

In January, officers found 11 people inside the Woodman when all pubs in England were shut as part of the national lockdown.

They were watching a football match on TV. No-one was wearing PPE and social distancing was not in place.

Officers found evidence that they had been drinking.

Mr Foulstone was served with a £1,000 fine for operating contrary to coronavirus restrictions and was criticised by environmental health for showing ‘a blatant disregard for public safety.’

Over the past 18 months police have been called to the Woodman to deal with under-age drinking and fighting, including a mass brawl on Christmas Eve 2019 involving around 100 people, mostly males, fighting with knives and throwing bricks and bottles outside the pub.

They have also dealt with a reported sexual assault on a ‘vulnerable’ teen who ‘had been drinking at the premises.’

Solicitor Robert Brackup, representing Mr Foulstone and the Tadcaster Pub Company, said the Covid breaches were ‘inexcusable’ and ‘unjustifiable’ but that prior to the last 18 months the pub’s record had been ‘unblemished.’

He said the football match gathering had arisen from ‘a misguided sense of community’ as the Woodman was considered to be a ‘community’ pub.

He added: “There is no excuse for what is an unacceptable breach that places others at risk.”

He disputed a police report that said alcohol had been sold on the premises during lockdown and said there was no evidence to prove commercial sales had taken place.

And in reference to earlier incidents, including the mass gathering on Christmas Eve 2019 in the street outside, he said youths had been refused entry at the Woodman after having arrived from another pub.

A call to the police came from within the pub.

He said: “There’s no evidence that there was any unlawful activity ongoing in the public house.”

He said there was ‘no widespread practice’ at the Woodman of serving alcohol to underage people. He also challenged the timescale of the run-up to the reported sexual assault, arguing that the victim claimed to have been in the Woodman when the pub was in fact shut during last summer’s lockdown.

Mr Brackup said detail of additional measures and conditions had been forwarded to the licensing panel as an alternative to the police’s call for a change of management at the premises.

He said: “Covid measures are part of a learning process that we’re all getting to grips with.

“Guidance has been given to the [landlord] by the brewery and so far as I’m aware that guidance is being complied with.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, Clr Pinnock said: “Myself and my two colleagues will now go away and consider the information that’s been presented today.

“We will not deliver the results via webcast. Instead a letter will be sent out to the premises holder to confirm the decision.”