TWO pub landlords have been told to pack their bags and go after they refused to allow the brewery to install "spy in the cellar" systems in their premises.

Joan and Lawrence Theaker, of the Aqueduct Pub, Ewood, and Cliff and Marilyn Hutchinson, of the Gibraltar Hotel, Dukes Brow, both Blackburn, have been given six months to get out of their pubs after they refused to let Daniel Thwaites install an Electronic Draft Information System (EDIS) in their cellars.

The EDIS -- dubbed "spy in the cellar" by pub tenants -- is a way for the brewery to monitor all the draught beer sales in each pub.

But when the Aqueduct and the Gibraltar refused to give the brewery access to install the new systems, the tenants were told that they were being given notice to quit by the brewery.

MrTheaker said: "As self-employed business people, tenants' sales and trading figures should remain a private matter between licensee and accountant.

"There has been no guarantee that future rent negotiations or increases will not be based on figures transcribed by this equipment. Now we have been told verbally that we will be given notice to quit. I'm going to fight this all the way -- I'm not taking it lying down. We have been with Thwaites for 11 years -- I can't believe we are being treated like this after all this time."

Jim Shorrock, former chairman of the Daniel Thwaites Tenants' Association, said: "Since the demise of the tenants' association, tenants feel they no longer have a voice or a body they can turn to for help or support in licensing matters -- thus enabling the brewery to ride roughshod over them. "Tenants feel that when their beer order is placed with the brewery they then know the tenants' trading level without resorting to the "spy in the cellar".

A spokesman for Thwaites confirmed that notices to quit were sent out after the tenants had refused the brewery access to its own cellars.

He said: "EDIS has been installed with great success by many other breweries and pub groups and we have held trials ourselves over the past year.

"The system, which is part of our cellar equipment, allows the monitoring of beer flow through our lines.

"It has several advantages not least in marketing, showing when the busy times are, which lines are busy, and it is cost effective helping with staffing costs.

"We are installing this cellar equipment at our expense and at no cost to the tenants involved."

Geoff Sutcliffe, chairman of Blackburn Licensed Victuallers' Association, said: "Obviously it is very difficult for us to comment on individual cases without knowing the full facts.

"This is something that is becoming more and more common across Blackburn, but the breweries are well within their rights to install these systems.

"Generally speaking most members of the LVA are not happy about the situation but there is very little we can do."