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The Tories voted against a Liberal Democrat motion to council tonight which if it had been successful would have seen Walsall Council, along with others across the country, asking the government to take the necessary steps to pass a new law to enable community pubs to trade on a level playing field with supermarkets and others by prohibiting the irresponsible promotion of alcohol as a loss leader.

The second part of the notice of motion called on the government to pass a new law to prohibit restrictive covenants that would prevent any future use of a property as a “local service” ie public house, as defined by the “Sustainable Communities Act”.

There were a number of speeches from all sides which were sympathetic to the demise of the “local” in our communities. It was pointed out that they were as important to the local economy as were corner shops and post offices.

It was say the Tories, the second part of the Lib Dem motion, which they could not support. They felt that it would be wrong to restrict the use of such covenants to prevent a property from being used as a “local service” and as a result voted against supporting local pubs and micro breweries.

Speaking after the meeting tonight councillor Shires said “If supporting the second part of our motion was such a problem to the  Tories then they could have moved an amendment removing that part of the notice of motion. The amendment would have received enough support for it to become the substantive motion then that would have been voted through by the whole council.

“Instead the Tories put political dogma before commonsense and allowed the notice of motion to fall” said councillor Shires. “So much for the Tories boast to be the champions of local business” he concluded.