Hitches and problems

If you were a beer fanatic and had a fiancee that also liked beer what better place to get wedded than a real ale pub? Perhaps, if it were a brew pub you could commission a special nuptials ale for the occasion. A good friend of ours had this very same idea and approached us with the idea of registering our Inn for such events. We'll, give it a go we thought, after all it might get us some extra trade. I was apprehensive though as there was bound to be some procedural legislation driven bureaucratic problem, as there generally is with these licensing people. Undeterred we progressed with the application, paid the £915 fee, and awaited the inspection of the property, which was scheduled for today.

The appointment arrived and the very nice lady loved the location and the proposed rooms. She was really keen to see us get a successful application. But then came the question: "Where are your disabled toilets?". Uh oh! Well...we don't...sort of....really have any. "What about wheelchair access?"...Nope. Apparently, if we are not Disability Discrimination Act compliant we might well have the whole idea thrown out.

I agree with the DDA principles. Something that goes along the line of disabled people have the right to an independent and dignified way of joining in with life as if able bodied. Fantastic. If a disabled person came to my pub I would bend over backwards to provide what I could for them and attempt to preserve their dignity as best I can. However, I have a roof to replace soon which will cost around £40,000. This is a more important spend than the likely modification costs of around £20,000 to this 475 year old building required to comply with the DDA.

In the 5 years we've been here wheelchair users have spent around £20 in this Inn. We are in the middle of the mountains, they don't come here. It would be a bit like providing facilities for elephants at the South pole, because they would have the right to be there. So, the result of this particular piece of legislation is that a nice little wheeze, that might help to give this Inn a little more life and provide people with an interesting place to get hitched might get stopped by bureaucrats.

Lets hope not.