Pub told to shut down its beer tent

The Priory, close to the Kassam Stadium, had been serving drinks to fans from a marquee in its grounds since landlord Tim Rackley began leasing the pub from Firoz Kassam’s Firoka business in 2004.

But increased policing at Oxford United’s recent home games has put the premises licence, which only permits sales inside the venue, under the spotlight.

Police licensing officer Tony Cope admitted he was not aware of the problem until officers at matches pointed it out, but said the pub was well run and he was “not coming down like a tonne of bricks”.

Mr Rackley, who says his personal licence allows him to sell “on or off the premises”, has criticised the police’s handling of the situation.

He said: “It’s a technicality they’ve picked on, they’ve really gone through it with a fine toothcomb.

“The fans ask us, even through the winter, to keep the outside bar going. This is their supporters’ club basically. It’s going to cause a lot of problems – it makes absolutely no sense to me.”

Mr Rackley, who said he had shelled out £10,000 for CCTV and employed experienced secutiry staff on match days, added: “Without the outside bar, home and away fans are going to be meeting at one point to get served, whereas before we could segregate them and keep an eye on them.

“We’ve liaised with police for seven years and had no trouble.”

The financial implications of closing the outside bar at pub, which is leased for £1,000 a week and takes £50 on non-football weekdays, “don’t bear thinking about,” according to Mr Rackley.

Mr Cope said: “It’s a breach of the licence and we had three options.

“Ignore the breach, send a warning letter with ways of how to rectify it, or we prosecute.

“If we know something’s illegal we can’t ignore it, so we’ve given him the chance to vary his licence.

“It’s difficult because there have never been any issues with the pub.

“It’s quite close to the football ground and there have been no issues so he’s obviously running it very well.”