A poetry group has been banned from performing in its local pub on health and safety grounds after the council said the landlords had the wrong licence.
The Royal Standard in Ely, Cambs, has been threatened with a £5,000 fine because it only has an entertainment licence for singing and not speaking.
The threat forced landlord Richard Whitmore to call time on the poetry group, called Turning Point, which has been drawing in customers on quiet Tuesday evenings.
Playwright Paola Trimarco, 46, who heads the group, accused East Cambridgeshire District Council of being petty. He said: "The council are being ridiculously bureaucratic and looking to pick on someone."
Mr Whitmore, 43, said: "It's trivial and pathetic. We've got a licence for 200 burly men to bounce around to whatever music they want, but not for a small number of quiet people to have a talk."
Elizabeth Bailey, the council's principal environmental health officer, maintained there were sound reasons for the different licences. "We have licences for all sorts of reasons - fire and police need to check it is safe - it is not just us being petty. There need to be certain checks in place."
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