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Pensioners told they can booze at Belong

Pete Bainbridge
21/ 5/2008

THEY say great wine improves with age... and for these vintage drinkers it was well worth the wait.

Propping up their brand new bar at Belong retirement village, on Kennedy Avenue, the silver-haired suppers celebrated their new booze licence with, well, a drink!

Macclesfield Borough Council granted their application so they can now be served alcohol in the communal areas of the premises.

Resident Maurice Brook, 82, who is rather partial to a pint of bitter, said: "I think it’s an excellent idea.

"As a young lad I would drink Bentley’s bitter, but that was a Yorkshire drink so you can’t get that here.

"I think this new bar will be great, and we’ll all thoroughly enjoy it."

Another happy resident said: "It’s perfectly reasonable for older people to have the odd celebratory drink."

And fellow socialite, great-grandmother-of-two Druclla Crow, 83, added: "It’s lovely, really super. It really is, and I’m so very very happy here."

The grandmother-of-three, who has been at the village for three weeks, added: "I don’t drink a lot – I just like an occasional gin and tonic, especially when I go out for lunch.

"But having this bar, now I know why men like a pint in the pub.

"And I also quite like a glass of sherry, it makes people think of Christmas doesn’t it?"

A spokesman for CLS Care Services said that having a quiet beverage in the bar with friends and neighbours was an essential part of village life.

He said: "Our residents enjoy a beer or a glass of wine at home in the evening just like everyone else.

"But until now they couldn’t have one in the communal areas.

"Because they can’t nip out to the pub as they used to in their younger days, we have brought the conviviality of an evening-out to them.

"The whole purpose of the village is to allow residents to continue enjoying normal life in a safe, sociable and enjoyable environment."

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