The branch will be split in to 2 areas for the Pub of the Year competition (POTY), one covering Tyneside (made up of Gateshead, Newcastle and North Tyneside) and one covering Northumberland, these areas will be based on the corresponding local council areas.
A winner, runner up and third place will be awarded in each area. These six pubs will then be judged by a team of branch members using the criteria set out by CAMRA nationally for the POTY competition and which is used for judging pubs in subsequent rounds of the competition. The winner from this judging will be put forward as the branch representative for the regional round of the competition.
The POTY competition is voted for by Tyneside and Northumberland CAMRA branch members via an online vote on the branch website, and each member may only vote once. A shortlist of 10 pubs will be selected to help members to vote, however if members wish to vote for a pub not on the shortlist they will have the option to enter this instead.
The shortlist will feature 8 pubs selected using scores from CAMRA’s National Beer Scoring System (the same system used to select pubs for the Good Beer Guide) along with two wildcard entries selected by the branch committee for which nominations from members will be taken. For a pub to be eligible to be nominated it must sell at least one real ale.
The pubs with the most votes per area will be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. In the case of a tie the place will be shared and the place immediately below will not be awarded, ie if two pubs tie for first place in an area there will not be a second place pub just two winners and a third. If the tie is for third place both of those pubs will go forward for judging.