EXCLUSIVE

BNP COUNCILLOR SHUTS DOWN DODGY BOOZER

16-01-2007

The BNP councillor who runs one of the most notorious pubs in the Black Country has called time in his efforts to keep it open afterfights on the premises involving guns and machetes - news that will shake the party's claim to be tough on law and order.

James Lloyd who runs the Lagoon in his own Princes End ward in Tipton told The Stirrer last night that he probably wouldn't even turn up at a meeting of Sandwell's licensing justices today where it's future is due to be discussed.

The police want the place shut, and Lloyd who has been the licensee for two years told us: “I've only got 12 months left on the lease, and I've run out of steam with the place.”

He said that the pub wouldn't re-open after closing time last night.

In June, it was reported that a man who had been beaten up and lost teeth at the Lagoon returned the following day wielding a machete, while in November another customer fired a semi-automatic weapon after threatening others in the bar.

Is this what every pub would be likein a BNP-run Britain? Not according to Lloyd, who as well as beingthe leader ofhis party on Sandwell Council isalso a member of the local Pubwatch scheme. He claimsThe Lagoonhas become a victim of its notoriety.

He said: “It does have a rough reputation, which goes back to the 70s but these days it's unfounded. The police have only been called out three times in the last ten years.”

The pub has in any case been earmarked for demolition with an application for a new block of flats on the site due to be heard by Sandwell's planning committee on Wednesday.

BNP-watchers should note that when we caught up with Mr Lloyd he wasn't in his own boozer, but was instead at the Vine in Roebuck Lane, West Bromwich -a popular Asian-run establishment where he was enjoying a curry.

(We are grateful to local political website www.ministryoftruth.org.uk for tipping us off about this story. They carried the first speculation about Lloyd's involvement at the Lagoon, and ask some intriguing questions about the Express and Star's reports on the pub.)