Call to save the traditional pub from vanishing (From Bournemouth Echo)

Call to save the traditional pub from vanishing

7:00pm Thursday 26th November 2009

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A CAMPAIGN to boost traditional British pubs and halt the current wave of closures has been hailed by pub landlords in Dorset.

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (Siba) have launched the I’m Backing the Pub campaign as the latest figures show that around 50 pubs are closing per week nationwide.

The campaign is calling on drinkers, publicans and politicians to do more to keep pubs open and is highlighting the negative effects of increased taxes.

An opinion poll of adults showed that most believed the tax on beer was too high and that the closure of so many pubs is undermining an important part of the country’s social and community fabric.

Pub casualties locally have included the Tatnam Hotel near Poole Stadium, the Greenridge at Upton and the Tollhouse Inn at Lymington.

Popular Bournemouth town centre pub Daisy O’Briens closed earlier this year but re-opened after licensee Mike and his landlords “renegotiated a more realistic deal”.

Daniel Jesson, pub manager at the award-winning Goat and Tricycle in West Hill Road, Bournemouth, said pubs were struggling in the face of high taxes and competition from supermarkets.

He said: “You can go into Tesco and buy three cases for £20. People are not coming out to pubs as often. They are still coming out for the social experience but whereas it was two to three times a week now it’s dropped to once a week.

“And tax is high.”

Mick Mullin, manager of the Avon Causeway Hotel at Hurn, described tax on beer in this country as “abominable”.

He added: “It’s wrong. I think the government and the licensing authority are totally out of touch with what happens in pubs and what they mean to the community."

Traditional pubs are a meeting place for older people and those who live alone, he said.

“If you take the pub out of the village where are people going to go?”

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