Covid-19: Burnley pub The Angel Inn closed for 'flouting' rules

On one occasion, police found about 30 drinkers and one table with a tray of pie and pea on it

A pub which "flouted" Covid-19 rules by allowing people in to drink during lockdown and serving alcohol without food has been closed by a council.

Burnley's The Angel Inn had been the subject of the "highest number" of coronavirus-related reports in the local area, Lancashire Police told Burnley Council's licensing committee.

The force said in one raid, officers found three drinkers hiding upstairs.

The committee suspended the pub's licence ahead of a 4 December hearing.

'Four or five pints'

In a statement to the committee, PC Michael Jones said a colleague had spotted people drinking illegally at the pub on Accrington Road after investigating lights and music coming from it at about 21:15 GMT on 13 November.

He said those inside had tried to escape, but officers sealed the exits and, after being let in by a woman who said she was drinking alone, "found three people hiding in an upstairs room".

All four had been fined for breaching Covid-19 regulations, he said.

PC Jones also stated that during two previous inspections before the second lockdown, the pub was found to be ignoring coronavirus rules about the serving of alcohol.

He said on 17 October, the day Burnley moved from tier two to tier three restrictions, a PC found men sitting near the bar with "four or five pints of beer lined up on a table [and] little or no evidence of food consumption".

A week later, a second officer found about 30 people drinking in the pub and a single tray holding servings of pie and peas on a table, he added.

Tier three restrictions at the time banned pubs from serving alcohol without substantial meals.

Following the hearing, the pub's owners said they would be meeting with solicitors on Friday to discuss the situation.