March-2007 What's Brewing - Hundreds of pubs lost every year
THOUSANDS of community pubs are under threat from closure a new survey has revealed.
Reports from 197 CAMRA branches found 56 pubs a month are closed permanently and at any time 1,300 are shut and facing an uncertain future.
And it could be the last chance saloon for the urban local, as eight out of 10 of those closing are in towns and cities.
The last CAMRA pub survey, published in 2005, using figures from local authorities, showed 26 pubs a month were closing.
CAMRA Chief Executive Mike Benner said: "These damning new figures prove why CAMRA's Community Pubs Week is so important. Across the UK currently, a sword hangs over more than 1,300 pubs and falls on an average of 56 a month, depriving communities of a vital hub forever.
"This is not a problem confined to rural areas. In fact the survey revealed that 80 per cent of pubs permanently lost are in urban areas.
"This is due in part to the high demand for housing that often means city and town residents have to watch their community pub ripped from them to make space for another soulless development.
"Many pubs are also being converted to restaurants, shops and offices. CAMRA believes pubs are a unique sector and therefore should be placed in a separate Use Class to other retail businesses."
The threat to urban pubs was backed up by Pub is the Hub campaigner John Longden. He said: "It is now the pubs in urban areas that are really under threat. You only have to walk around parts of East London to see the threat to many community pubs. Once where there was a pub, there is now just a building boarded up."
And he feared for many urban pubs, which were being sold en bloc and were ripe for redevelopment.
Hundreds of pubs lost every year.pdf