Leader: Cheer on our best pubs

Newsdesk • Published 20 May 2010 08:00 0 Comments

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LAST year a total of 2,365 British pubs closed with the loss of 24,000 jobs.

That was the price exacted by a combination of the smoking ban, increased alcohol, cut price supermarket booze, changing social habits, and corporate owners for whom pub signs equate to pound signs and a healthy profit from building housing or another apartment block instead.

Some see the nation's romantic attachment to its pubs as sentimental nonsense, but they are inarguably at the heart of many a community and provide everything from a genuine social hub to a refuge for the lonely. Given a fighting chance, as we saw here in Reading with the Jolly Anglers in Kennetside, such closures can be reversed.

The case of the Kennet Arms, as we report today, is different because excess noise has understandably incurred the wrath of the licensing authority. But equally worrying are the words of the Enterprise Inns spokeswoman that "we are considering our options for the future of the pub".

The Kennet Arms is the kind of community pub that we cannot afford to lose. While the pub with no cheer is better than a pub with no beer, let's hope it can start getting on better with its neighbours.

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