Saturday 28 June 2014

Furniture Shop Applies for Licence to Serve Alcohol

The owner of a furniture shop in East Street Farnham, which controversially also serves alcohol has applied for a licence, after being ordered to close on the 10th June.

Simon Atkins said his "experiment" at Innsatiable, where free drinks are offered in exchange for the purchase of beer mats, had nothing left to prove and he now planned to expand the unlicensed model into London and Winchester.

The shop was ordered to be closed until all alcohol was removed after an ooperation by undercover police officers in May, were able to prove licencing rules were broken, officers did this by successfully arguing that Innsatiable’s beer mat pricing structure was a smokescreen, and that not enough effort was made to properly explain what customers were actually buying.

“Farnham is just the start for us,” said Mr Atkins. “We have done what we needed to do here – what do we have to prove any more?”

Mr Atkins accepts that he fell foul of the rules, but he believes the transgressions can easily be put right with a simplified pricing structure, and that Innsatiable’s unlicensed model is essentially sound and can be replicated. He is currently in negotiations with investors to open clone establishments in Shoreditch and Winchester High Street.

“We’re totally confident we will be able to operate legally in the new premises,” said Mr Atkins. “Our controversial concept will go down a storm in Shoreditch.”

Innsatiable opened back in July 2012 offering alcohol without a licence until October that year, when it obtained a licence for 12 months only to surrender it after police inspections.

Mr Atkins maintains the effort to close him down was the result of licenced venues complaining to police in an effort to protect their businesses, particularly since Innsatiable installed a dance floor and live performance facilities.

Town and Waverley borough councillor Carole Cockburn said: “The town council received many, many complaints about unruly behaviour, many of them from families with children walking past on a Saturday afternoon. Normal licensed premises were under a duty to prevent people who appeared to be drunk from obtaining more alcohol, I’m glad Mr Atkins will be under the same obligation.”

While he waits to be granted a licence, the landlord is preparing to launch a range of homemade beers infused with spirits, known as 'speers'.

Providing there were no objections, Innsatiable should have received a premises licence from Waverley Borough Council by July 16






Tuesday 24 June 2014

Guy Offers To Drive Drunk People Home For Free

In one of the most inspirational acts ive seen in quite  a while, one man took to one of the busiest bars in his town and began offering free rides home.

Chronicling his journey throughout the night, a guy called Alex wrote out a plea for anyone that had been drinking to accept a free ride home.



The message he wrote on a white board outside the bar read:

“Hi, my name is Alex.
If you have been drinking tonight, I’d like to offer you a free ride home. Someone I know killed a man while drinking and driving one year ago tonight. In honor of the man who dies, I’d like to help keep the roads safe. I will even bring you back to your car tomorrow.”
 
Acting on what he thought his friend would do if he was a free man, Reddit user becauseisaidiwould posted his journey to the photo sharing site Imgur. Follow this link to see the photos of him driving people home, along with his captions.

Sources: Redit, imgur. inquisitr