The Royal Standard in Ely, Cambs, has been threatened with a £5,000 fine because it has an entertainment licence for only singing and not speaking.It forced landlord Richard Whitmore to call time on the Turning Point poetry group which had been drawing in customers on quiet Tuesday evenings.

East Cambridgeshire District Council insists there are sound reasons for the different licences. Principal environmental health officer Elizabeth Bailey said: "We have licences for all sorts of reasons - fire and police need to check it is safe - it is not just us being petty. There need to be certain checks in place."

But playwright Paola Trimarco, 46, who heads the group, said: "The council are being ridiculously bureaucratic and looking to pick on someone.There isn't a lot going on in Ely on week nights. Do they want Ely to be another boring little market town? It seems the council say they want to support new events and then contradict themselves."

Mr Whitmore, 43, said: "It's trivial and pathetic. We've got a licence for 200 burly men to bounce around to whatever music they want, but not for a small number of quiet people to have a talk.When they give recitals it's not even amplified. They just get up and speak."

Come and read a verse if you think you're hard enough!

The blood always ran a bit high on "Iliad" night.

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