Of the three the Pastoral Hotel features the highest at 49th, but licensee Greg Pilon isn’t concerned and believes talks with police over coming days will see five of their 15 recorded assaults swiped from their record.

“There are three levels that pubs can fall in, level one is above 19 incidents, 12-19 is level two and level three is 12 and below,” Mr Pilon said.

“These incidents don’t have to be convicted assaults and they don’t have to happen inside the hotel, they can happen out on the street.

“I am pretty confident that after we meet with the police that five of the incidents will be cleared and we will fall back into level three,” he said.

Mr Pilon said while his hotel was placed at 49th he was pretty happy when he compares the number of incidents reported at the hotel to the number of patrons who pass through his doors.

He said by comparing the number of patrons the pub attracts and the number of assaults recorded on the bureau’s report the Pastoral was still the safest pub in town.

“We work very closely with the police and we have already enforced our own voluntary conditions for the safety of our patrons,” he said.

Some of the voluntary conditions the Pastoral adopted earlier this year include serving drinks out of plastic cups after midnight, refusing to serve drinks containing more than 5 per cent alcohol, refusing to serve shots, offering free water and free sausage sandwiches.

Mr Pilon said works have also begun to increase space at the hotel, including connecting their laneway with their courtyard out the back and building another bar outside.

While there will be more space at the hotel, Mr Pilon said he wasn't interested in increasing his patronage.

“We trade late three nights a week, 156 nights a year and we have only had 15 incidents,” Mr Pilon said.

“People will vote with their feet and we are still the most popular pub in town,” he said.

Some of the licensed establishments that featured at the top of the list for the last financial year include The Mean Fiddler with 42 reported incidents, The Glasshouse Tavern with 36 and Star City with 29 recorded assaults.

Dubbo’s Commercial Hotel was placed 79th and the Amaroo Hotel is 97th.

anna.yeo@ruralpress.com