BUSINESS people in Hungerford had a chance to question their local MP Richard Benyon recently.
The town’s Chamber of Commerce members quizzed Mr Benyon on a variety of issues at the Three Swans Hotel last Thursday.
Landlord of The Downgate pub in Down View, David Yates, asked Mr Benyon what his party would do about cheap alcohol in supermarkets, which he said was causing pubs to struggle even more and encouraging anti-social behaviour.
“The humble British pub is under threat,” he said. “We’re being blamed for anti-social behaviour and underage drinking, but we as pub landlords are the only ones doing anything about it.”
Mr Benyon said that he had recently seen beer for sale in a supermarket for 26p a pint and that this had to be stopped and pubs should be saved from closure.
A big topic at last year’s session was the level of policing in Hungerford and the need to use the police station.
This year, however, the police were not mentioned and much of the talk centred around national issues and the importance of small businesses in recovering from the recession.
Mr Benyon, who had just returned from his party’s conference in Manchester, said that the country’s banking system had been “constipated” and that it needed the fiscal equivalent of a dose of figs to get people to borrow again.
He urged independent traders to make use of Governement loans and tax relief available.
“A lot of small businesses are not claiming relief and there is a huge amount available,” he said. “I would like to see some form of mandatory relief, so it was automatically done.”
He added that he found businesses in Hungerford better connected than in other areas and that this helped him to take up any issues they have.
Chamber of Commerce chairman, Ben Blake, said that Mr Benyon had agreed in principle to an open debate with the two other main party candidates for the district, David Rendel (Liberal Democrat) and Hannah Cooper (Labour).
He added that this was likely to be around March next year and would take place in Hungerford.