Memorandum from Claire and Denise McCutcheon
(DDD 10)
We would wish to place on record our total opposition
to any change to the drink-drive laws on the grounds it would
probably ruin us.
This is an old "drovers'" pub, situated
1.5 miles from the nearest town and between two small villages,
so that no more than a dozen houses are within a mile of us. We
are the third generation to run the Harrow, our grandparents becoming
brewery tenants there in 1932. There is no bus service and in
the early nineties the direct road to our nearest town, Petersfield-the
old Saxon droving road-was cut off by the A3M by-pass, making
the journey here even more difficult for the road user. Four years
ago the smoking ban further added to our commercial problems.
Despite this however the Harrow has been able
to maintain its appeal to families, walking groups and traditional
"regulars", being mentioned in every edition of The
Good Pub Guide (including a "long service" award)
and being recognised for its "authenticity" by Alastair
Sawday. Only this year it won an entry into The Good Food Guide.
Over the last 10 years it has raised £27,000 for cancer charities.
Our concern is chiefly for our "regulars",
people who have always enjoyed a nightly gossip, drink a pint
or two and then go home. We now cater for them by only selling
3.8abv beers. In all the years our family has been here there
has never been an accident.
This pub is known throughout the world as unchanging.
There are still two bars, toilets are across the lane, brass tapped
barrels sit in the servery and the same Victorian clock ticks
on the mantelpiece the way it did right through World War 11.
Can we suggest that, before you make any recommendations
about reducing alcohol levels, you should visit us and perhaps
advise us how we can continue to be commercially viable if a virtual
nil alcohol level is introduced and our customers risk acquiring
criminal records just because they like a pint or two.
August 2010
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