Can anyone explain why a pub would change so dramatically from quiet and sleepy to filled with people who break into violent fights?

[WindsurfingDreams]

We live in a pretty sleepy boring village. It has a three pubs all of which are pretty quiet places -.people would go there for a roast or a few drinks in the evening. All felt like "family" pubs.

The next village is similar. Pretty quiet and sleepy. Pubs that everyone feels comfortable to go in

We are about 20-30 minutes by car from the nearest city. 15 minutes I guess from a small town .

I've lived here 20 years and the pubs have always been quiet and undramatic places.

In the last year a new landlord /company has taken over a pub in each village and since then there has been regularly violence sprawling out of the two pubs he has taken over and into the streets.

I just don't understand why /how a different landlord can create such a difference? A lot of the people seem to come in from the nearby town/city when this would never have happened before - people might have driven here for a walk and a Sunday roast not a wildly drunken night out.

We live far enough from the pubs that it doesn't affect us personally but it's causing some friends a fair amount of distress. And it doesn't feel safe to pop to the village shop on a Friday/Saturday evening.

I just feel a bit baffled /naive I guess!

Unfortunately a pub is only as good as the landlord. Often they bring trade with them, good or bad. My suggestion is that people in the village monitor what is going on and report to the local police and also look at the licensing authority. If there is frequent trouble, underage drinking, drugs etc a licence can be revoked. Hope the village manages to resolve the situation.

Drugs. It’s always drugs.

Yes that happened to a pub near me. It was shut for a bit and now has a new landlord.

We also live in a very sleepy village of around 80 dwellings max. Nothing here at all except for a duckpond and one pub. Barely anyone knew it was there - very much a local pub for local people, not even a sign outside. It was bought as a free house over lockdown and our once sleepy (practically comatose) village is now a "destination" for hundreds of people every weekend. Verges destroyed, residents and farm animals disturbed by loud events and fireworks every other week. Everyone was looking forward to having a refurbished, slightly more lively community hub but it's not somewhere that locals feel comfortable now or welcome now. I think it's purely down to the landlord. He brought his previous locals with him and doesn't seem in the slightest bothered by alienating his current neighbours.

New management is happy with dealing. Seen it too many times before. Probably brought a network with him.

But why would people travel 20-30 minutes out of a city for a landlord? I mean it must cost them a fortune in taxis (or they are drink driving..)..he was previously running pubs in the city they are all coming out from, but it just seems so strange

Drugs. It’s always drugs.

Yes it's very similar here. He even does social media videos sneering at the locals for complaining

Cocaine. They're not called County Lines for nothing.

As in the landlord is dealing them /linked to dealers? Or just known to tolerate them?
There is a lot of talk of drug use being witnessed so it does make sense.

I feel fairly dim /naive... Can you explain?

Could be both. Probably more likely that they are turning a blind eye to them rather than directly dealing. My sister used to run pubs and even years ago it was virtually impossible to keep them out once they are in.

Are they choosing villages because there's less police presence?

County Lines refers to the practice of dealing drugs outside your area. Usually using young and/or vulnerable people

Drugs and money. This happened in my Aunt's sleepy town. A pub got taken over and put the word out that anyone who had been barred from pubs in the nearby city could come to the pub. Cue fights and antisocial behavior. Eventually there was a very serious incident and the police got the pub closed down.

I would sympathise if this guy ran one pub having issues but two previously sleepy pubs in two different boring villages (with no public transport) changing dramatically almost overnight like this feels like more than bad luck for the landlord

Possibly and also a good market ( less competition) and not as obvious. Plus cocaine is taken by many “naive” people who see it as a dinner party naughtiness rather than the evil it is.

Yes I understand that, but do you mean that is happening in the pub? That the landlord is linked to it in some way?

Yes this frustrates me hugely, when people think it is somehow benign.

We really need an active and effective police force, don’t we. It’s obviously drugs, and the fact that there’s no police around makes it very safe for them.

If someone finds out the landlord is turning a blind eye, is too scared, his mates are the dealers etc they are going to use it as part of their county lines operation. Because the distance from them is harder to trace it back to them.

It's so sad, its gone from being the kind of village where the kids could happily walk home at 10pm to somewhere where we give them a lift to their friends even at 6 in the evening on a weekend.
Our house is further out so we don't hear the noise, but the people in the (very pretty) centre of the village are getting little sleep at the weekends

Have you been to the police? As a community?

I think a petition to the local MP is order.

Most likely the landlord is mates with the dealers - they know they're safe enough to use his pub as a base. That's why they travel from out of town. There's also less police presence in a village compared to the town centre.

Unfortunately it's unlikely to stop until the pub is under new management. We had a pub go like this locally, it took about two years and many, many fights and police visits to move the landlord and trouble on.

Yes most people I know have made reports to the police and the licensing authority. People aren't being passive. (Hence the landlord making various quite unpleasant social media posts in response). I just felt really naive /stupid as I couldn't understand why it could change so dramatically. But the drugs /crime link makes sense.