MORE than 50 people attended a virtual meeting to rally behind the tenants of a pub who could be evicted in March. Tenants Sharon and David Halstead, from the Wilpshire Hotel, Whalley Road, Wilpshire, had approached owners Enterprise Inns (EI Group) to change their lease. They tried to convert their tied tenancy to a ‘free of tie’ arrangement in line with the terms of the Pubs Code, which requires the pub operators to offer a ‘market rent’-only option to tenant landlords and landladies. In doing so, the couple said, the pub is freed from the beer levy charged by the pub company and has a better opportunity to be profitable.