“Not fit to run a licenced premises”: The backstory of the co-owner of the UK's first Reform UK pub
PLUS: Brews in the heart of Blackpool under new St John's plans
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
Today we report on the history of The Talbot’s co-owner Pete Flynn. Now steering the ship at the UK’s first ever Reform UK pub, his history includes police declaring that he is not fit to run a licenced premises.
But he defends himself from all of that - saying that the way he behaved was in fact ‘heroic’ and that he shouldn’t have made an enemy of police while conceding that he did bring some of it on himself.
The story of how The Talbot became Reform UK’s first pub is now well-documented with national headlines fawning over the turquoise blue makeover the pub received.
Elsewhere - there are plans for St John’s in the heart of Blackpool to serve coffee which we’ve looked into for you.
The Talbot co-owner ‘not fit to run a licenced premises’, said police
By Michael Holmes
One of the co-owners at Reform’s first pub - The Talbot in Blackpool town centre - was forced to give up his licence after holding a boxing bout elsewhere without permission and then hosting a lock-in that led to a violent street brawl which left a woman with a broken arm, documents obtained by The Blackpool Lead have revealed.
Pete Flynn, who owns The Talbot in Milbourne Street alongside Nick Lowe, who is the sole licence holder, was alleged to have taken £500 from the boxing event's organiser to keep serving after-hours at the Tangerine Tavern.
Police said they reported Flynn, who now wants to stand as a Reform candidate, to licensing chiefs after being called to a melee outside the club, in St Annes Road, South Shore, and spotting people staggering in and out of the venue through a side door in the early hours of the morning, when it should have been closed.
Flynn, who was also investigated for allegedly dodging duty fees after boxes of foreign-labelled wine were found piled up behind the bar, was branded “not fit to run a licenced premises” and told he had shown “a complete disregard for the authorities”.
A police officer accused the businessman of lying - and smiling at the end of the bar in a “disturbing” manner - as the street outside his bar turned into a warzone.
The council decided it had to strip Tangerine Tavern Ltd - where Flynn was director - of its licence to prevent more crime and disorder.
Speaking to The Blackpool Lead, Flynn said he agreed to give up his licence to save people’s jobs, adding: “It was rather heroic and it was a big deal but it was my fault and I brought it on myself.”
He insisted: “The only thing I’m guilty of is having a row with the police and making a fool of myself. I went to court and voluntarily surrendered my licence to save jobs.”
Flynn has become a Reform darling in recent weeks after painting The Talbot in the bright turquoise colour of the anti-immigration party, which now has its logos displayed outside, and beginning to serve a pilsner called “Remainer Tears”.
He has also asked to be nominated as a local Reform candidate when a vacancy arises and is, according to a national newspaper, going through the party's vetting process.
The events that cost Flynn his licence were set in motion on July 25 2014, when he was also the licence holder at The Waterloo Hotel and Bowling Club in Waterloo Road, less than 300 feet away from the Tangerine Tavern, and planning to hold a boxing match there.
Police visited and warned Flynn he was not allowed to hold such an event at The Waterloo - but it went ahead anyway, with about 400 tickets sold, documents claim.
An officer visiting two days later on Sunday July 27 saw a ring set up on the bowling green outside, the papers also show.
Music was being played at the back of the venue and two teenagers, believed to be around 16 years old, were seen fighting while wearing protective headgear and boxing gloves, Pc Michael McVeigh reported.
Flynn told The Blackpool Lead he believed his licence, which allowed him to hold sporting events on the bowling green, covered boxing.
He said he emailed police before the event and was visited nine days before the bout and told he needed to apply for a temporary event notice, which Flynn said required 10 days’ notice.
He said: “(The officer) said, ‘We are going to have to let it go ahead’.
“It was a licensed amateur boxing match. We did our due diligence. The only thing we should have done was put a temporary event notice in. It was a mistake. We had a licence for sports. Boxing is a sport. But they said, ‘You need a separate licence’.”
In a witness statement, Pc Emma Pritchard from the force’s licensing department said she visited The Waterloo two days before the fights and told Flynn “if he went ahead with the event that he would be committing an offence as he was not licensed”.
It was hours after the event, which saw a number of bouts held, that matters came to a violent head.
Police were called to a mass brawl involving 25 people outside the Tangerine Tavern, with “many pushing, shoving and shouting at each other, with several drinking alcohol from glasses”.
One officer said the “level of intoxication of all parties involved was extreme”.
Flynn said: “The (boxing) event went perfectly fine. Everyone went home except for a few of the organisers who came back to the Tangerine Tavern.
“We had a couple of drinks and the girls started fighting outside. The police were called and stepped in but they were heavy-handed.”
He continued: “There were no fellas fighting. Not one. Girls started fighting outside. Other people went outside to stop it. Police arrived and it got heavy-handed. The next minute, someone got thrown to the ground and broke their wrist.
“Not one of the men threw a punch - it was the ladies.”
The free-for-all led Lancashire Police to ask the council - which controls who can and cannot run a pub in the town - to review the venue’s licence.
In a formal application for a review, the constabulary said Flynn told an officer “lies about his licensing hours and serving after-hours”.
The force argued: “Peter Flynn is not fit to run a licensed premises and shows a complete disregard for the authorities. It is not acceptable that public safety is put at risk and officers injured due to serving alcohol after-hours to the point people were incapable of walking and committing serious disorder in the street.”
Christopher Hill, a uniformed police officer driving a liveried van, said he was called alongside several colleagues to the Tangerine Tavern shortly after 1.30am when a nearby resident called 999 to report around 20 people fighting outside.
“I got out of my police van and could immediately sense the volatile situation,” Hill said.
“There was a mixed group of both men and women, with the majority shouting and swearing at each other, squaring up to each other, with some pushing and shoving each other.
“We intervened as best we could, splitting up parties involved and eventually the incident seemed to be calming.”
Hill said people were “staggering around unsteady on their feet, slurring as they were shouting and some were nearly falling over”.
He went inside the club through an open fire door and saw “about six people” inside, with four drinking alcohol.
“I saw that three of the four people had drinks that were nearly full or three-quarters full,” he said. “As I entered, one male who was extremely drunk was coming out. He was so drunk he had snot all down his face, was swearing, could barely walk and was retching as if he was going to be sick. He shot out the club by the fire door…”
Hill said he challenged Flynn inside the venue at about 1.45am.
He said: “He was stood at the end of the bar smiling, which I found quite disturbing.
“I asked him what had gone on and he just shrugged his shoulders. I asked him what his licensing hours were and why was the fire door open. He told me he was licensed to serve alcohol until 2am.
“I then asked to see the licence. There was a barman still behind the bar at this point and he passed me the licence. I looked at the licence and saw that the licensing hours in which he was allowed to serve alcohol were in fact 12.30am.
“I again asked Flynn what his licensing hours were and again he said 2am. I said to him that he mustn’t know his licensing hours as the licence clearly states half-12. He didn’t reply.
“I then asked him why people were still drinking and why alcohol (was) still being served. At this point Flynn stated to me that they wasn’t serving alcohol and they were drinking up.”
Hill accused Flynn of “clearly lying”.
But Flynn told The Blackpool Lead: “They said we were serving. I said I wasn’t but I had a licence until 2am.
“It was my attitude to them which stunk and I made the mistake of upsetting them. I've become more mature since then and I’m very sorry. It will not happen again.”
He added: “I got a bit annoyed. They should be civil servants but when they have their uniform on, they get all the power in their head.
“I upset them and they came gunning for me.”
Hill said he was called back outside the pub when a colleague radioed for help as two women began to pull each others’ hair, with the rest of the crowd “either trying to split it up or shouting and goading others”.
More officers arrived on the scene and two men were arrested, Hill said.
“I then went to speak with licensee Mr Flynn,” he continued. “I knocked loudly on the fire door several times which was now locked closed. I could see the lights were on but nobody answered.”
After helping to arrest a woman, Hill said he saw Flynn smoking at the Tangerine Tavern’s front door.
He said: “I started walking towards him and as I got about 20 metres to him, he (threw) his cigarette on the floor and went inside, closing the door behind him.
“I knocked on the front door loudly several times but Mr Flynn didn’t come to the door.
“I believe he was avoiding me.”
Flynn suggested the officer mistook somebody else for him - saying he had “gone home” by then.
After being arrested, the man who organised the boxing event “stated that at one point Flynn said no more drinks were being served so he put £500 behind the bar and Flynn continued serving”, Hill said.
Pritchard, in the police’s licensing department, said she spoke to Flynn about the early-morning fracas two days later.
“Flynn said that it was mainly pushing and shoving and verbal arguments and that some were arguing with (the boxing event organiser) over the boxing matches not being ‘well matched’ and fights not lasting long enough,” she said.
“I asked why people from the boxing were at the Tangerine Tavern and Flynn said, ‘Because The Waterloo was closing so they all came here about 11.45pm because I thought we were licensed until 1am but we’re only licenced until 12.30am’.
“I then informed him that he is actually only licensed to serve alcohol until midnight on a Sunday.
“I asked him why he had told Pc Chris Hill he was licensed until 2am and he said no officer actually came inside and spoke to him.
“Flynn then asked a barman Dave regarding this and he said yes, an officer spoke to both himself and Flynn at the bar and I asked if it was himself that was asked to show the officer the premises licence and he said it was.
“Flynn then seemed to have a vague recollection of this.”
Another officer, Pc Dave Watson, told how the mass street clash led to one woman being badly hurt.
He said he had tried to arrest her for being drunk and disorderly - saying her “eyes were glazed, her speech was slurred and she was very unsteady on her feet” - when she resisted, turning towards him and trying to break free while shouting: “Get the fuck off of me.”
Watson said: “By this time, I was in the middle of the crowd of people struggling with (the woman) and as I tried to control her and push her out of the crowd so as not to be surrounded by the group, I accidentally stood on her foot, causing her to stumble backways, falling to the floor within the crowd.
“I could not see, because of the crowd, how (she) landed but almost instantly she sprang to her feet and swung a kick towards my groin as hard as she could.
“I reacted, moving back partially out of the way of this kick, which resulted in (the woman) kicking me on the inside of my left thigh.
“(She) swung this kick with such force that she slipped and fell backwards once more into the crowd. Again I could not see how she landed because of the crowd who gathered round her.”
Watson said he and another officer turned the woman on her front so they could handcuff her hands behind her back - before she screamed: “My arm. You broke my fucking arm.”
The officers handcuffed the woman but removed the restraints when they noticed her left wrist was “misshaped”, Watson said.
She was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital for treatment.
Flynn, 53, whose address was given as Preston New Road, was reported for breaching his licensing conditions and, after being cautioned, is said to have replied: “It’s my fault. I’ll throw myself at the mercy.”
Separate documents, also seen by The Blackpool Lead, show how concerns had already been raised about the Tangerine Tavern.
Mark Marshall, who was then the licensing and health and safety manager at the council but no longer works there, went to the pub in March 2013 to check if there was a “safe means of escape in the event of a fire”.
After going to the back of the venue, “my attention was drawn to a large quantity of foreign-labelled wine stacked up near the staircase that leads from the first floor”, Marshall said.
“My next concern was a security bar that was obstructing the emergency means of escape. I gave advice to the barman that the security bar needed to be removed during the time the premises was open to the public.”
Marshall said he challenged a worker about the Italian wine, asking if UK duty had been paid, but was told “he did not know anything about it and that it was not his”
Speaking about five weeks later, Marshall, who sought advice from officials at Customs and Excise and wrote to Flynn to ask for proof duty had been paid, said he had “not received any evidence” that it had been.
A town hall spokesperson told The Lead no further action was taken against Flynn over the wine.
Speaking about the blocked fire exit, Flynn said: “I had a go at the fire marshall. I said, ‘You don’t know your arse from your elbow’.
“The fire exit that was bolted was for the function room. It was only opened if the function room was in use.”
The Blackpool Lead asked Reform what checks it carried out on The Talbot and its owners before announcing its partnership with the pub.
It did not respond.
A senior party source said recently that the venue is “the first of many” in the country, adding: “First we replaced the Tories … at the local elections. Now we are replacing their clubs, too.”
But these latest revelations could trigger further embarrassment for the party - after it was already revealed that The Talbot was due to host a neo-Nazi concert that was only axed after the campaign group Hope Not Hate reported on it.
Flynn, who has a holiday home in Spain, where there have been large-scale anti-tourism protests recently, has vehemently denied any suggestion of racism.
His partner at The Talbot, Nick Lowe, who was also involved in the running of The Waterloo and was in Crete when the boxing event was held, previously said of the neo-Nazi links: “It’s nowt to do with me, I just rent the room out. I’m not racist at all but I have to make money somehow.”
The Tangerine Tavern has since closed down.
The Waterloo has been under new management for some time.
Flynn, who has described himself as a “silent partner” at The Talbot, said: “I volunteered my licence to save the jobs of the people because it was me who had a run in with the police, nobody else.
“I can never be involved ever again in the running of an establishment.”
Saying he was then a “young, fit man” but is now a “mature person” who has suffered a heart attack and goes to the gym to “keep my ticker going”, Flynn continued: “I’m grateful you are airing my past now. I have done nothing unlawful. There was one incident where a police officer was overstepping his mark and I gave it back.”
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