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Blackpool's sad catalogue of pub closures
DRIVE around Blackpool and it will not be long before you come across a boarded up pub.
Famous hostelries like The Bloomfield, traditionally the favoured watering hole of Seasiders fans, and Uncle Tom's Cabin in North Shore, one of the resort's oldest pubs, are among those to have called time on drinkers.
Meanwhile, last month the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) reported beer sales in pubs were "at their lowest level since the Great Depression" – down 10.6 per cent compared with the same quarter last year.
And brewers are in trouble too with Liverpool-based Cains going into administration.
Yet figures linking booze with crime suggest people are binge drinking more than ever before.
Dave Daly, of the National Association of Licensed House Managers, believes customers are turning their back on their local and buying alcohol from supermarkets instead.
He said: "It's people staying at home and drinking, they buy from the supermarket."
John Farrell, secretary of the Blackpool Licensed Victuallers Assocation, says there is still a place for well-run pubs, but customers will only spend their money behind the bar if they are getting a quality service in return.
He insists: "What people want is quality and safety."
For many of the larger pubs in Blackpool, the cost of maintaining them is just not sustainable. It's not just the public areas, but the whole building which needs to meet tough trading standards.
Many claim the smoking ban has also not helped.
Renegade Blackpool landlord Hamish Howitt stood at two by-elections in a month to fuel support for his campaign against the smoking ban.
But he also says he is fighting for the future of the great British local.
He said: "We want to put the smoking issue in the national spotlight, but it's much more than that. It's about saving the great British pub.
"The pub is the hub of political debate, not Parliament or the House of Lords, but soon we won't have them to go to."
It's a worry shared by the BBPA which said there were 1,400 pub closures nationally last year, compared with 200 the year before.
Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) chief executive Tim Clarke says the boarding up of pubs is taking place on a "considerably greater scale" than occurred in the recession of 1990-91.
Clarke claimed that beer volume declines of around 10 per cent in the wider on-trade reflects "value and amenity" problems in the pub industry.
Clarke said: "As you go around the housing estates of the Midlands and the north in particular, the scale of the boarding up in blue-collar areas is on a considerably greater scale than I remember in 1990-91.
"It's dramatic. Boarded-up pubs are a fraction of the to-let signs you see."
Many within the on-licence trade are calling for fairer trading conditions to stave off the threat brought about by the smoking ban and the advent of cheap home drinking.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) took its protest about price increases at the pumps to the opening of the Great British Beer Festival in London.
Protesters at Earls Court wore "fair deal on beer tax" T-shirts and masks of Alistair Darling.
In March alcohol tax rose six per cent over inflation and is due to do so again by two per cent for each of the next four years.
CAMRA chief executive Mike Benner said: "High beer taxes threaten to prevent many low and moderate earners enjoying a regular pint at their local pub.
"We desperately urge the chancellor to think again before he goes down in history as the chancellor who closed thousands of community pubs, damaged community life and prevented many millions of pub-goers from enjoying a regular trip to the pub."
In the run-up to the festival more than 1,700 people joined a Facebook group – "Fair Deal on Beer Tax" – to call for lower excise duty on beer.
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Weather for Blackpool
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
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