Pub closure debate needed
There's a craterhole the size of a fallen meteorite bang outside Sevenoaks station where once used to stand the finest kind of community pub you could ever imagine.
The Farmers was a wonderful pub, which as well as taking part in darts and football leagues put on parties, quizzes, karaoke, ale festivals and even the occasional mud-wrestling competition. The locals loved it. Their lives often revolved around it.
Sadly, the Farmers was owned by a charity that decided to sell it for £3m to boost group funds. Despite an heroic campaign to save the pub, with thousands signing petitions, MPs lobbied and the local council regularly vilified by licensee Mike Collings, the bulldozers moved in over a year ago and the pub was razed to the ground. Ironically, the developers who wish to build offices and flats there now appear to have run out of money - and all that can be seen is excavations and blown-down hoardings.
This tragic story of the destruction of a much-loved pub is being echoed all across the country these days. Many famous pubs have been unceremoniously switched to alternative use, leaving nothing but memories for their regulars to enjoy. And, one suspects, none of them died without a fight by their licensees and customers to keep the developers at bay. Yet such is the planning system that it's rare to see a pub survive the property speculator and his Grim Reaper. Only money really talks in these situations. So if locals can club together to buy their pub, fine. Otherwise, it's just another nail in the community coffin.
Camra, which has highlighted this issue over the years, says the rate of pub closures is accelerating alarmingly - up from six a week just recently to 14 a week now. It proposes a separate Use Class planning category to other retail operations, as well as further restrictions on developers.
Sounds like a good idea. But the practicalities are complex. Many in the trade feel we are actually over-pubbed (let's not forget that even when 14 pubs close, others will open that week). And there will be licensees who would resent not being able to sell their freeholds for the best price when they wish to retire. Equally, the smoking ban is likely to see the end of hundreds of wet-led boozers. Surely they can't be kept on artificial respirators?
Camra is right to highlight the increasing pace of loss. But a real debate is needed to find the solution.
