When will there be good news?

In three years you'll both be in your sixties and like with all retired
folks it won't really matter anymore.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, ogden

I'm not too old to give you a clip round the ear, you young
whippersnapper! Why, in my day there...

Ooh, no. It's happened again. NURSE!

 

That I don't disagree with (maybe not as high as 50%) but it's not as a
direct result of the smoking ban. Rural pubs are dying and have been
dying for many, many years.

Societal (is that a word?) changes are the primary driver, and on that
subject, that and drink driving.

Pubs are generally shit. I know, I love them.

 

The Black Horse does well because it serves good food at a sensible
price so people will drive over there for a meal. Take away the food
and it'd shut within 6 months.

A lot of the smaller pubs that you used to find in villages have shut
and will never re-open as pubs because when property prices were
flying they were converted to be used as residential dwellings. This
was going on before the smoking ban but I suspect that any further
drop in takings because of the ban would prompt more to go down this
route.

If you owned a small pub in a village that had absolutely no room to
serve food other than sandwiches and your takings were steadily
dropping off wouldn't you be tempted to spend £50k converting it away
from being a pub then flog it for £400k as a nice detached property
with a garden? Pubs with a half decent car park are even more
vulnerable because you can soon bung up another couple of houses on
that land and still keep a large part of the old pub garden with the
original building.

I can take you to several villages in N.Bedfordshire or
Northamptonshire where this is the case just in case you don't believe
me.

 

I think he's going to be out by a huge factor. I want some of this
action too - wonder if he'll take my bet?

 

Hey,am I too late to have a piece of this?

ANyway, as others have pointed out, the loss of rural pubs has been
going on for ages. The smoking ban may be a factor, but it's only
another straw to the camel's back.

This article lists all the reasons that have been aired here. Except
the smoking ban:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7742539.stm

 

Oi !! F**K RIGHT OFF

 

I believe this is the reasoning behind the Punch owned pub in my
village. The go out of their way to make it almost impossible for new
tenants to make a profit, because that want to force the issue with the
listed building bit and sell the land suitable for three detached
'little boxes' houses.

Part of the pubs roof is collapsing and Punch are insisting on a
'repairing lease' or a large increase in the price of beer and
percentage of takings if you don't accept that type of lease.

They have put bugger all into the place but want the new publican to pay
for their neglect.

 

In communiqué <>, Mick

AOL.


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