Branch Campaigns

ALAN COULTHWAITE

15^th August 1927 to 7^th April 2008

Alan was born in Barrow-tin-Furness in 1927. He lived on Walney Island and attended Ulverston Grammar School. His love was for the Lake District where, in his early days, he often went cycling.

The family later moved to the Wirral and Alan transferred to the Wirral Grammar School. He took a keen interest in amateur dramatics, sport and became a drummer in a four piece dance band.

He met Barbara at a dance in the Wirral and they married in June 1952. He went to work in Camelairds shipyards for a number of years as a wages clerk and then became a salesman for Nu Swift International – the fire extinguisher people. The family lived in Chester.

But his real ambition was to run a real ale based pub in the Lake District and he eventually achieved the first part of this ambition when he and Barbara took on the Cornwood Inn, nr Plymouth. But 5 years later he finally achieved his ultimate goal when he moved back to Ings. Buying the Millholme Guesthouse he and his son Brian spent three years on a conversion to a proper pub. It opened in December 1990 with 5 real ales on tap.

The rest to many of us, as they say, is history, since Alan and Brain became terrific supporters of CAMRA and to real ale in general. Many of us will all have our own special memories of Alan – for me it was his arcane humour gleaned from the Goons. Other will have other memories, but all of them warm and friendly.

It is a great shame that Alan’s reward was to be struck down by Alzeimer’s and he was lost to us all. The Westmorland Branch has lost a true supporter and friend, he will be greatly missed. We are sure that his legacy will continue in the capable hands of Brian.

The Branch have decided to make Alzheimer’s the Charity for our next Beer Festival in October so that the fight against this most terrible of diseases can continue.

Our Westmorland Branch of CAMRA has just topped the 200 mark for members. But as with many organisations the number of active members is very low. It is recognised that the population of the old Westmorland area is widely dispersed and so transport and travelling become a limiting factor which sometimes it is extremely difficult to overcome. But if, as a Westmorland Branch member you are reading this then we would love to see you at some of our meetings. We are actively considering our Transport policy following the loss last year of our long time transport provider Peter. We hope to agree a regular fixed price for all future visits of what ever length so that members and friends know the cost of attending meetings. We try to send regular communications to members to encourage more people to volunteer and get active in CAMRA by means of emails and our website www.westmorlandcamra.org . It is really important to get more members involved if we want to continue campaigning and to have an informed discussion and vote on such things as Pub of the Year; Good Beer Guide entries etc. If we haven’t got your email address then please visit our website and contact us with details.

CAMRA is establishing a long term strategy to react to the launch of the Alcohol Health Alliance. Key points in response to Alcohol Health Alliance demands are:

· If high taxes work, why does Britain with the highest beer tax in the EU have worse drinking behaviours compared to low tax countries?

· If high taxes work why do the high alcohol tax countries have a higher rate of binge drinking than low tax countries?

· That dramatic health warning labels such as “drinking kills” would be utterly misleading as moderate alcohol consumption can actually benefit people's health.

To promote the positive side of pubs and moderate alcohol consumption we propose to:

· Review and summarise medical research showing that those who consume moderate amounts of alcohol actually live longer than those who are teetotal.

· Promote the role of the pub as a force for bringing people and communities together.

The number of signatures on the full pints petition has now reached just over 21,500. The petition has been running for eight months. The full pints petition is intended to run until July 2008 which will mark the end of the first part of the campaign. The petition will then be delivered to the Prime Minister during the summer.

Stage two will consist of contacting those who have signed the petition, and others, to ask them to lobby their MP during the 2008/2009 Parliamentary session. Remember to always ask the Bar Staff to ‘take it to the top.’ You have paid for a pint so you should not be afraid to let the head settle and then ask for a top up.

Despite 150,000 campaign postcards being printed to support CAMRA's call for a cut on beer duty by 1 penny a pint in this year's budget the reverse happened and ‘Capt. Darling’ increased beer by 4p a pint (13%); 3p on a pint of Cider (14%) but only 10% on Wine & Spirits. The core of the argument for a beer duty cut is that high beer duty has resulted in falling beer consumption. By failing to cut duty Chancellor the decline in beer consumption will accelerate meaning the Government will lose future tax revenue.

It looks likely with other production increases in the pipeline as brewers struggle with price rises over all their costs that beer drinkers will be paying 20p more. CAMRA Chief Executive Mike Benner said that the inflation busting increase was “a charter for ‘smugglers & cheap supermarket booze.”

He added that “The Chancellor fails to recognise that community pubs are the solution to Britain’s binge drinking problems. This budget will do nothing to stop binge drinking but it will lead to pub closures on a wide scale; widen the gap between pub & supermarket prices. Pubs are defined as public services under the new Sustainable Communities Act 2007, yet the tax rise alongside other market pressures will accelerate closures. The budget shows a disregard for our national drink and the 15 million people who enjoy it responsibly.”

John Grogan MP secured a Parliamentary debate in December in which he called for curbs on alcohol price promotions in supermarkets, and described the boss of Tesco as the “godfather of binge” drinking. Health Minister Ben Bradshaw indicated that the Government would be prepared to act if a review due to be published in April showed a link between supermarket alcohol price promotions and binge drinking.

The Home Office are going ahead with the introduction of Alcohol Disorder Zones that will be in place within weeks.

Alcohol Disorder Zones allow Local Authorities to impose a charge on all pubs, bars, and clubs within the zone to pay for policing. The charge could be more than a £100 a week per pub and failure to pay would result in the revocation of the venue's premises licence. But who pays in the end????

Local Authorities can grant 90% discounts to premises that they deem not to be causing a problem. However as the purpose of the zones is to raise money to pay for policing Authorities may be reluctant to grant discounts. It will be up to individual Local Authorities to introduce the zones and current indications are that very few will do so. Prior to the imposition of any Alcohol Disorder Zone there needs to be a public consultation. In those areas where such a zone may be proposed then CAMRA intends to mount a strong local campaign.