IT IS right and welcome that the controversial East Lancashire pub leasing company, Oak Leaf Inns, has been given the boot by Blackburn brewer Daniel Thwaites after its dubious methods were exposed by this newspaper.

After all, it and its owner, Marcus Hyslop, took the dreams and the money of people who wanted to run a pub and gave them misery, worry and no wages in return.

Now Thwaites have come to the rescue.

They have taken back the leases of all the pubs in Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley that they let to Oak Leaf.

They have made the victim managers their tenants.

And legal action is threatened by the landlords to get their unpaid wages.

Yet, if this proves a suitable climax to a sorry saga - which, after its exclusive investigation, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph has been happy to assist - it remains disturbing to us that it commenced so easily in the first place.

For here was a person with no apparent experience in the licensed trade, suddenly being granted control of a chain of pubs and the livelihoods of the people working in them.

What vetting procedure, if any, did Thwaites have?

True, they have responded promptly, correctly and sympathetically.

But that response should also involve an internal inquiry as to how all of this happened and steps to ensure it cannot occur again.

Meantime, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph modestly accepts the thanks of the people to whose aid we came.

It is, with the restoration of the axed East Lancashire breast cancer nurses, the second instance this week of this newspaper playing a successful part in getting the right thing done for individuals and the community.

But that is, and has always been, part of our job.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.