Unsustainable communities?

Over the past few years, CAMRA has devoted a lot of campaigning effort to getting the piece of legislation known as the Sustainable Communities Act passed. They claim that: “The Act provides a channel for local people to drive Central Government assistance and action to improve the economic, social and environmental well being of their area. This means that local people can use the Act to promote community pubs and the availability of local beers.”

But it completely escapes me exactly what in practical terms it is meant to achieve, or how it is to be done. Surely the best way of ensuring the success of pubs is to encourage more people to go to them, which seems to be dramatically at variance with recent government anti-drink initiatives, not least Oldham’s notorious crackdown. As far as I can see, the actions of local government almost always seem to be directed towards curbing the activities of local businesses, especially small independent ones.

It seems to me the best way to protect pubs is for government, whether central or local, to keep out of their hair...