A woman who runs a tourist information website which gets millions of hits every year has pledged to support the five families from North Lakes pubs facing eviction because a national brewing giant will not renew their licences.
Vanessa Morrison, of Visit Cumbria, has emerged as an influential ally of the affected licensees.
Marston’s, owners of Jennings Brewery, had turned the lives of families living in the pubs – the Oddfellows Arms, the Bank Tavern, the George Hotel and the Twa Dogs Inn, all Keswick, and the Royal Oak in Braithwaite – upside down by not renewing their licences to operate.
Mrs Morrison, who is a former Keswick School pupil and previously worked at the George Hotel, said she was “disgusted beyond belief’’ and would do “everything within her power to educate – truthfully and legally – visitors to Keswick, encouraging them to express their views with their feet and their wallets for as long as it takes for Marston’s to appreciate that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable to our community.”
“I have got a good idea of what it takes to run a pub or restaurant in Keswick and how hard you have to work and I can imagine how tough it’s been for those families over the last year-and-a-half so I feel very strongly about this,” said the 56-year-old.
“It’s something that people will not pick up on at the moment because people are thinking about going on holiday and whether they can get a job.
“I think that Marston’s are doing it cynically and quietly at this particular time. There is nothing makes me madder than big business bullying the hard working small businessman who keeps their company afloat, and that is exactly what they are doing.
“This staycation boom is only going to last so long. People will go anywhere they can to get a table and get a pint but next summer the customer is going to be king.
“I can publicise what Marston’s are doing and ask people if that is the sort of place that they want to patronise. I am not asking people to boycott the pubs now, only if they (Marston’s) do decide to evict them without suitable compensation.
“They should not be chucking them out in the first place, particularly at the end of a pandemic.
“Feelings in the local area are running very high: this will not change once the landlords and their families have been evicted. This will run and run.”
Marston’s has declined to comment on the situation.
Operations director Ed Hancock said conversations the company had with lessees were always confidential.
