South East Campaign for Real Ale

th Branch Meeting – The Mayflower – 4 November 2014 Meeting started: 20:30 Number in Attendance: 25

JohnApologies Anderson for Absence

MarkMinutes Bullock of queriedLast Meeting how much we received from Pipers Crisps and Merry Berry for their stalls at the festival. Steve Dunham stated we received £425 from Merry Berry and £400 from Pipers. Pipers will also provide 16 boxes of crisps for staff.

No other matters arising.

JimChairman’s thanked everyone Report for their work on this year’s beer festival.

A parliamentary motion is gaining support to ensure that any demolition or change of use of a pub will require planning permission. It has currently been signed by 67 MPs.

TheTreasurer’s account balance Reportas of the 4th November stands at £4718.91. This is down £740.34 on last month due mainly to beer festival expenses. There was income of £20 from the beer raffle and £39.20 from the last Wyvern trip. The current balance is £2066.24 more than this time last year.

There then followed a discussion about whether to switch the branch account from a chequing account to internet banking only. Steve stated that cheques are still required for a lot of our suppliers.

Jim stated that the decision will be reviewed by the committee and reported back to the branch.

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AnBranch addendum Secretary’sto last month’s Report minutes is that the Birchanger Sports and Social Club, Bishop’s Stortford is actually the East Anglia Club of the Year and not just nominated.

CAMRA are urging all members to sign an e-petition about changing the planning laws so that full planning permission and community consultation would be required before a pub can be converted for other use. The e-petition can be found at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/66572

TheMembership current membership Secretary’s for the Report branch stands at 979 which is down 3 on last month. It is hoped that we will get the 1000th member during the beer festival.

As the subscription rates are going up, Colin said he will be ordering new leaflets to replace those currently in the pubs in our area. Mark suggested 25 per pub we wish to target. Holders will also be required as some pubs do not have these.

A question was asked about how successful this had been in the past. Maggie answered that this has been moderately successful but is also useful to get the CAMRA name out there.

Mark further suggested that we should see whether these could be delivered with festival equipment.

ItBeer is now Festival 2 weeks until the festival. Members were urged to send their staffing forms to Sue.

Staffing (Sue) Setup and Takedown are generally ok for staff with around 20-22 for each We are currently a bit low on staff for evening shifts especially Wednesday night. It was requested that we send out a mail shot to see if we can get people to fill these slots.

Main meals will be taken at the Marlborough Head apart from Monday when we will be using the Indian restaurant nearby. Staff will be provided with tokens for a main meal and a snack meal (depending on shifts worked).

2 Pints will be provided after the setup and also after the takedown.

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The drinks after the setup will be at the Horse and Groom and after the takedown will be at the Golden Lion.

The current beer list is available from Andrew Ferguson and will also be on the website.

There then followed a discussion about whether to put a GBG voting form at the festival for member to vote. It was stated by Maggie that CAMRA are actively trying to get people to vote via WhatPub and also that this could be favourable towards Southend/ pubs. There were also issues raised about checking to make sure people do not vote twice (i.e. once at the festival and then during the normal GBG mailout).

Colin proposed a vote be taken as to whether we should allow GBG voting at the festival. The vote was unanimously against allowing voting.

Brian passed around the new redesigned payment cards for comments. They are now 10p denominations only (rather than the 50, 20, 10, 5 in previous years). The cards will not be stamped this year as it was felt that the complex design would stop any forgery. Refunds will close at 11pm. We will also be promoting that cards can also be purchased from the bottle beer bar.

Maggie has posters if anyone needs them.

TheSocial following Secretary’s coach trips Report are currently planned:

Saturday 8th November sausage festival and pub crawl FULL Thursday 15th January Mighty Oak Brewery Visit Thursday 12th February Saturday 28th March Micropubs of Kent

We will be running a Wyvern bus to the Harwich Sausage Festival on the 8th November. The cost of the trip will be £16 including drivers tip. First pickup will be at 08:30, arriving in Harwich at 10:45. We will leave Harwich at 16:00 with a one hour stop at the Railway Tavern, on the way back. For pickup times please see our website or contact Steve Dunham.

The branch Christmas party will be held at the Olde Trout Tavern, Southend on Friday 12th December starting at 8pm. Tickets will be free to people who have worked enough shifts at the festival. Numbers are limited.

Terry’s annual post-Christmas stroll will be held on 30th December starting at Holborn tube at midday. For more details about the route see the branch diary on our website.

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The January branch meeting will be held at The Ship, Leigh. The February branch meeting will be held at the Punchbowl, Pagglesham with transport being provided as before. This will also be the GBG selection meeting.

On the 15th January will be running a minibus to the Mighty Oak brewery. The cost of this trip will be £16.

On the 12th February we will be running a bus trip to 3 Canvey pubs (TBC).

On the 28th March we will be running a bus trip to 4 micro-pubs in Kent

The beer festival wrap up meeting will be held on 14th January (venue TBC).

Next Branch Meeting: Tuesday 2nd December at the White Hart, Hawkwell Next Beer Festival Meeting: Wednesday 12th November at the Olde Trout, Southend. Start time 20:00

For further details see the Branch Diary on our website (www.see.camra.org.uk)

VariousPublicity websites Report and brewery websites have been emailed about the festival. Roger Protz has also tweeted about it.

The previously mention e-petition has also been promoted

More WhatPub information leaflets has been ordered for pubs.

ThePub l andlordLiaison of Report the Cricketers, Westcliff is currently in custody allegedly accused of possession and supply of class A drugs. Grays and Sons have taken over the running of the pub

The Halfway House, Southend will become a Toby Carvery in December 2014

The Townhouse has a new landlord who wants to put in 2 real ales and possibly up to 4

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White Horse, Southchurch has been bought by the Spirit Pub company and will reopen as a Flaming Grill pub on 3rd November following a £365,000 refurbishment. It will be renamed to Old Walnut Tree.

In other Spirit Pub news, after a bit of back and forth and some counter offers, Greene King will buy Spirit Pubs for £774 million pounds. This will create a pub group with about 3,000 pubs. Greene King want more food pubs so buying Spirit gives them Flaming Grill, Chef and Brewer and Fayre and Square along with Taylor Walker and John Barras.

The Gun Bowers Gifford has had its plan to build an extension on green belt land approved. The extension is for another function room

Foresters Arms has been bought by the developers of the new Marine Plaza on the seafront

South Benfleet Social club does a daily “happy hour” 12-7 Monday to Thursday and 12-5 Friday when ale is £2.60 a pint.

King Canute on Canvey which closed on May 19th will become a Co-op.

Billericay Brewing has had the planning permission granted for a larger shop and a bar in the next unit

Victory Inn, Ashingdon is closed for refurbishment re-opening on 7th November

Bull Inn, Hockley also closed for a four day refurbishment late October and is already open again.

Olde Trout Tavern has just had its 700th different ale on with this being Seventh Heaven from George’s. Beer quality also seems to have improved recently

The Skylark Hotel, Southend had its licensing renewal opposed. It is now licensed but with restrictions.

Beer Festivals

Crooked Billet, Leigh is running a dark beer festival until mid-November. Presumably this is in all Nicholson’s pubs

John Barras pubs have been running a best of British beer Festival since 20th October.

What pub

We are at 87% complete.

Walk was done around Westcliff and that got 6 pubs done.

 Lamb & Lion only does Ruddles Best  Hamlet Court does 5 ales – 3 regulars 2 guests

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 Melrose – despite what we had been told does 2 ales Courage Best and Deuchars IPA  Plough – Doom Bar plus 1 guest  Trading Rooms – 2 regular and 2 guests  Porters – Spitfire plus 1 guest normally from Wibblers (though not on during visit)

Our pubs still to do are

ESE/10709 Great Chalvedon Hall ESE/056 Jolly Friar ESE/10898 Basildon Noak Bridge ESE/058 Basildon Owl & Pussycat ESE/11491 Basildon Quays ESE/11088 Basildon Watermill ESE/062 Benfleet Benfleet Tavern ESE/11062 New Mayflower ESE/11091 Fobbing Haywain (Beefeater) ESE/10475 Hadleigh Castle ESE/067 Hadleigh Fatty's Bar ESE/10901 Laindon Prince of Wales ESE/10381 Leigh-on-Sea Bellinis ESE/11093 Leigh-on-Sea Harry ESE/11130 Rayleigh Spread Eagle Southend-on- ESE/10783 Sea Park ESE/10855 Stock Old Kings Head ESE/11139 Darby Digger ESE/073 Wickford Duke

Maggie reported that the Lamb and Lion were not too pleased to hear derogatory remarks from branch members about the pub when we were there on the recent Westcliff crawl. Jim stated that the staff were particularly rude when he asked what real ales they had on.

TheCiderLamb Report and Lion, Westcliff had a boxed cider on. The Borough, Southend is still serving good quality Cheddar Valley cider.

1311Webmastershits in August Report, with most hits being from the UK. London and Southend accounted for most of them.

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George’sBrewery Reports Latest beers are Balthazar’s Feast (9%), Marley's Ghost (4%) and Ebenezer Old (4%). All these beers will be on at our festival, with Balthazar’s Feast being the only time it will be available on cask. Snake Oil stout is being brewed again with 150ml of port in each cask. George’s Best is also being brewed again. Sales of Cockleboats have rocketed with The Angel, and the Cupid Country Club selling it regularly. It is also the house beer at the Mayflower, Leigh. The Rose and Crown, Rochford is permanently selling George’s Rochford Crown Ale.

Billericay Brewing As previously mentioned, Billericay Brewing has had the planning permission granted for a larger shop and a bar in the next unit. They are also brewing a new beer called Rhythm Stick, which is described as a "rich Hoppy amber ale". This will be available at our festival.

Vens Brewery Although they are no longer brewing, Richard Venour is now listed as the consultant brewer at the Goldstone Brewery in Brighton.

LongAny servingOther membersBusiness Sally and Charles Murray will be moving to Suffolk and thus leaving the branch soon. Jim thanked them for their help and service over the years and a toast was made in their honour. Mark Bullock will be organising a leaving party for them with details to follow.

Meeting closed: 22:15

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