THE boss of a multi-million pound pub company is poised to sue BCP Council on a “point of principle” after roadworks blighted one of his venues for over a year.

Kris Gumbrell, chief executive of Brewhouse and Kitchen, says the council made more money out of his Poole site than he did after the work at Hunger Hill drove away trade.

He is demanding compensation for the £8,000 he says the Dear Hay Lane pub lost on one of two nights when the power was cut, causing food to be wasted and customers sent away.

And he has accused the council of treating him “with contempt” despite his company investing £6 million into Bournemouth and Poole and creating 90 jobs at formerly empty sites.

Mr Gumbrell said: “At some point, somebody’s going to have to pay this money back. It’s a point of principle.”

He said the pub was now trading well again but lost money throughout the roadworks.

“This is in the profit and loss accounts. The council have made more money out of the site in the past 14 months through my paying business rates and Business Improvement District levies than I have,” he said.

“We’re a multi-site company so those other sites propped this one up.”

BCP Council has already been under fire for refusing a discount on business rates for Beales as administrators try to save its department stores. Mr Gumbrell said the council also denied Brewhouse and Kitchen a rebate despite the “exceptional hardship” its work inflicted on his pub.

Mr Gumbrell said: “I’ve paid £27,000-£28,000 a year for business rates for the site so why not exempt me from that?”

During the roadworks, the power was shut off to Brewhouse and Kitchen on two nights, costing the pub around £8,000 a time according to Mr Gumbrell. He said customers had to be compensated – with 80 people booked in on one of the nights – and food and beer was wasted.

He said the council’s insurer admitted liability for the incident on August 5 last year but the council refused to pay out over another cut, on January 31, 2018, because contractor Mildren Construction had cut the power that night.

And the council has recently proposed a “no unloading” restriction on Dear Hay Lane which he says will affect only his site, where there has been a pub for 400 years.

“We’re going to turn over £25m pre-VAT this year. We’re not a small turnover business but I’ve built this up from one site,” he said.

“I’m not prepared to roll over and just let it go.

“We’ve served notice that we will sue. We will agree to drop it if we get an acceptable offer.”

Mr Gumbrell, who studied at the former Dorset Institute of Higher Education, worked for three big pub companies before starting Brewhouse and Kitchen at a pub in Portsmouth. He later bought the derelict former Malt & Hops near his home in Southbourne, the former Rising Sun in Poole and the former Branksome Arms at Bournemouth’s Triangle.

The business now has 22 pubs.

“We have people come to Poole from the Midlands and the North do to a beer masterclass or brewery experience day,” said Mr Gumbrell.

He has been honoured by the mayor of Bournemouth for reopening the Malt & Hops but said he has been “treated with contempt” by over the Poole problems.

BCP Council had not commented at the time of going to press.