PUB chain JD Wetherspoon, which owns the Postal Order in Blackburn, has attacked the duty on a pint despite the Chancellor's freeze on alcohol tax in the budget.

Chairman Tim Martin said the Government did the right thing by not increasing beer prices but the discrepancy in duty prices between France and the UK was far too high.

A 10p to 15p fall, he estimated, would be enough to dissuade people from going abroad for their beer.

But despite continued concern over the threat of cheaper continental beer, Wetherspoon was in an upbeat mood as it announced what it described as strong results for 1998.

The group, which is in the process of dramatically expanding its outlets, has opened 55 new pubs to give it an estate of 307.

And it said it planned to more than double that estate to 750 pubs by 2004.

The expansion programme will see 25-30 new pubs to be opened in the next six months, then 80 a year for the next five years.

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