Some ways in which you can help
- Press your MP for more favourable treatment for pubs in excise duty and in their price competition against supermarkets
- Publicise the commercial challenge pubs face to stay in existence - in any way you can.
- Look for the signs of an imminent run-down of a pub e.g. owner putting inappropriate tenants in to run it, lack of essential investment, etc.
- Be aware of the position of your own pub – is it at risk of closing? Look for the reason for this – is it because of something the owner has set out to do or is it apathy on the part of the community? If the latter remember the maxim ‘Use it or perhaps lose it’.
- Accept that where there is no real demand for a pub, and where there could not be, and no great history or heritage reason for its continuing existence, it is probably going to have to close, and should not be opposed. Revenue from such a sale may help the owner invest in new facilities in pubs where there is a community demand for a pub.
- Register (it’s easy and confidential) on the “Community Alert on Pubs” Forum, give your views on the pub closures above, give an “Alert” where you believe a pub is about to be shut by its owner, give instances of other pub ‘eyesores’ in Dorset, and indicate where you believe the community support exists to enable a shut pub to re-open. Also advise where you understand a pub is about to be sold with a restrictive covenant that prevents it from being used as a pub in the future.