THE owner of a village pub is going ahead with its reopening despite a dispute over it alcohol licence.

Ariette Everett has taken back the Peldon Rose Inn, a pub she used to run with her late husband Alan.

The 500-year-old coaching inn, on the B1025 to Mersea Island, closed on Monday but is due to reopen today, ahead of the Bank Holiday Weekend.

Mrs Everett said she and Mr Everett bought the pub in 1985.

They ran it in the Eighties and Nineties and it was well-known as a family pub.

The couple leased it out and went sailing in their yacht.

Mr Everett died in 2013, aged 78, something she said led to a legal dispute with the tenants.

She said: “Relations became difficult. My husband always ran a very good, family pub, but with the tenants it went downhill.”

Mrs Everett took possession of the pub this week and plans to reopen it on today at 4pm.

However, she has not been able to obtain the physical alcohol licence so will not be able to serve the hard stuff.

Instead, she will serve “mocktails” - alcohol free cocktails.

She said: “I am 70. I’m not a youngster anymore but I’m just hoping to set the business right as it used to be a good family pub. It’s a well-known pub in the area. It has lost its ambience.”

“We hope to put a new menu on and restore it back to its former glory.

“The pub needs renovating. We will do that in October. It’s in a state.”

“I couldn’t let the pub go into any more disrepair.

We will do that work in stages. We will build a new conservatory and kitchen at the back.”

The pub’s staff will be kept on and Mrs Everett plans to recruit more.