A PUB landlord has planned his own Coronation celebrations after being denied the chance to cater a town event.

Tony Digweed has been at The Crown Inn in Fordingbridge for six years and in that time he has paid for a Fordingbridge Events Group stall to sell alcohol at events using his £14,000 mobile bar.

But this year Mr Digweed has been told that the Fordingbridge Events Group is running a fundraising beer tent in-house and he is not happy.

Feeling as though the group is "turning its back on local businesses after a hard year", Mr Digweed said: "It's an opportunity to make a few bob extra and they have locked us out altogether.

"We’re the centre of the town and the pub with the most footfall and we don’t want people to think that we don’t get involved in things."

Salisbury Journal: Jo and Tony Digweed.Jo and Tony Digweed. (Image: The Crown Inn)

The 'Big Picnic' event will take place from 2.30pm until 10pm on May 7 to mark the King's Coronation and 100 years of the Recreation Ground.

Fordingbridge Events Group and Fordingbridge Town Council will jointly run it.

The not-for-profit events organising group, which runs events such as the Fordingbridge festival, said the Coronation picnic is an "event organised by the community for the whole community" and it will be run differently and less commercially.

It will be free to attend, people are allowed to bring food and drinks and all money raised by volunteers running the beer tent will go toward funding future events.

In previous years, events throughout the year were funded by the annual festival and sponsorships but now the group wants additional money to do more for the people of Fordingbridge.

Councillor Pete White, chair of Fordingbridge Events Group, said: “As an events group, we haven’t run a fundraising event since before the pandemic hit and so we thought running the bar would help us put some more money into our kitty so we can create some more events for local residents."

The Crown Inn catered for a Queen's Platinum Jubilee event in 2022 at the Fordingbridge Recreational Ground and Mr Digweed said he's been working with the council for years.

Salisbury Journal: The Crown Inn's mobile bar at The Queen's Platinum Jubilee 2022.The Crown Inn's mobile bar at The Queen's Platinum Jubilee 2022. (Image: The Crown Inn)

After hearing the "unfortunate" news, Mr Digweed decided to do his own event for His Majesty The King's Coronation to "make the best out of a situation that none of us wanted".

He plans to run a family event in the back of the pub with live music, a hog roast, a bouncy castle and a disco.