Council Shuts Down Pub Landlord’s Free Charity Rides

• Paul Hartfield, landlord of the Flying Horse in Smarden, Kent, offered free black cab rides home to customers as an alternative to drink-driving, raising £700 for the MND Association in December alone.
• Ashford Borough Council wrote to Hartfield ordering the service to stop, citing private hire vehicle licensing requirements after a local newspaper published an article about the scheme.
• Industry data shows an average of four pubs per day have announced closures in 2026, with UKHospitality warning the typical pub faces £7,000 in additional annual costs by 2028-29.

A Kent pub landlord has been ordered to stop giving customers free rides home after Ashford Borough Council ruled his black cab service required a private hire vehicle licence, drawing widespread condemnation from regulars and adding fresh weight to the debate over the pressures facing rural pubs.

Paul Hartfield took over the Flying Horse in Smarden from his daughter and began offering customers lifts home in his own black cab from November 2025. The service carried no charge; Hartfield asked those accepting rides to make a voluntary donation to the MND Association. One of his regulars had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, leading him to select the charity. In its first full month of operation, the scheme helped around 100 people get home safely and raised £700 for the cause.

The service attracted local media coverage, and on the Friday following publication of an article by KentOnline, Ashford Borough Council’s licensing team wrote to Hartfield ordering it to stop.

“It’s mean-spirited that we are doing this for charity and I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do, to be honest. With the Government increasing business rates and rising costs, it just feels like it’s all going against us pubs at the moment,” Hartfield told The Telegraph.

The landlord, whose pub dates back to 1790, added: “It is just like a friend giving another friend a lift home.”

The council’s letter set out its position in full.

“As discussed, it has come to the attention of the Licensing Authority, through a recent KentOnline article, that you have purchased a black cab for the purposes of transporting customers of the Flying Horse, Smarden,” the licensing team wrote.

“It is understood from the article that the service is offered to customers booking a table, with a suggested charitable donation. It is also understood that the service has been offered since November with significant uptake reported.”

The notice informed Hartfield that offering a “private hire vehicle” placed him subject to “requirements for local authority licensing”. When Hartfield explained he was not making a profit, the council responded that an individual can “be said to derive commercial benefit” even when a payment is not made to the driver or company, directing him to a licence application page and concluding that a vehicle was being provided “in circumstances where the provision of the vehicle accrues a business benefit”.

The decision drew an immediate reaction from regulars at the Flying Horse. Paul Upton, 55, a customer of 20 years, described the council’s move as “utterly ridiculous”.

“It is just bizarre, it’s complete nonsense,” he told The Telegraph.

Upton, an insurance consultant, went further: “This is a guy who has put himself out, he’s bought the car with his own money, he’s bought the petrol and he pays for his own insurance. The concept of trying to stop it is just pure jobsworth nonsense, this could easily be waved through as a charitable thing, which is well-intentioned and helpful to people.”

The episode arrives at a difficult moment for the pub trade. The Telegraph has been campaigning to protect Britain’s pubs amid rising tax pressures and Labour’s plans to tighten drink-driving laws in England and Wales, which some in the industry warn could drive rural pubs out of business.

Following the launch of that campaign, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a temporary relief package to shield pubs from planned business rate increases, set out in her November budget. UKHospitality, the industry body, had warned that the typical pub faced a 15 per cent increase in its rates bill in 2026, amounting to £7,000 extra per year by 2028-29.

The relief measures have not reversed the broader trend. An average of four pubs per day have announced closures in 2026, and data from the Campaign for Real Ale, analysed by The Telegraph, shows 212 pubs have announced closures from the start of the year.