Published at 08:54, Saturday, 01 September 2012

ONE of our greatest and oldest national institutions is under threat.

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The great British boozer is part of the very fabric of our national identity, as quintessentially British as red telephone boxes and cricket.

In the TV series Ashes to Ashes the gateway to heaven is represented by a pub called The Railway Arms, which illustrates the unique and special place the boozer occupies in our national psyche.

But with an average of 12 pubs closing every week nationwide, some Cumbrian publicans can see a time when this ancient institution could disappear altogether.

At a time when alcohol is being blamed for the breakdown of our society, it is perhaps only fair to raise a glass to the role of pubs have played in holding it together.

They are not just places where people go to drink. Here friendships are formed, quizzes played, darts thrown and balls potted. Pubs can be venues for charity nights and in remote rural areas in Cumbria they often double as shops, off licences, post offices and unofficial community centres.

David Prickett, chairman of Westmorland CAMRA, says: “Often the pub is the last meeting point in a village or small community.

“The pub is the hub of the community and when that closes it loses a vital amenity which is difficult to recreate.

“Lots of villages and communities around Cumbria have limited transport links. The church and the shop and the post office may have closed down. When the pub closes there is sometimes nothing keeping communities together.”

Philip Tuer, a media and public liaison officer for CAMRA, adds: “I sincerely hope the pub has a future. It’s a social place. We have a different culture to other countries of going out and socialising. The pub is a common place to go out and meet people.”

Pubs have been at the heart of our community since at least Anglo-Saxon times. Starting as houses where beer was brewed and sold, they later developed into wayside hostelries and eventually became the unofficial community centre for villages, towns and cities.

However, the abundance of cheap supermarket booze, the economic downturn, spiralling utility bills and tax on alcohol, are all conspiring to kill them off.

Across the UK, 300 pubs closed permanently between September 2011 and March 2012, an average of 12 a week.

North Cumbria has seen the closure of at least a dozen pubs over the last 12 or 18 months, a rate of about one per month. A similar number of pubs closed across west and east Cumbria Cumbria, according to CAMRA.

The Spinners Arms is a traditional English pub in the heart of the village of Cummersdale near Carlisle.

Run by Alain and Alison Davis, it has been listed in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for the last four years and has previously won the CAMRA Pub of the Season award. But even this may not be enough to save it and the couple feel lucky to still be open.

Choking back tears, Alison says: “We are not bucking the trend in the pub trade at the moment.

“The current economic climate, people with less income, the rising cost of utilities and other overheads, the massive increased in VAT and the rising percentage of low cost alcohol sales through supermarkets have all affected our business.

“We are lucky to still be here. We work seven days a week and rarely have staff cover. We are struggling to stay afloat. The only things keeping us in business are our locals, our regulars and our darts teams who want the place to stay open because they identify with it as their pub.”

Alain, her husband, delivers an even more grim prognosis for this most beleaguered of industries.

He says: “I think the pub trade is becoming obsolete, a thing of the past.

“If people want to keep them they are going to have to visit them. Otherwise, they will disappear.”

He doesn’t want a handout from the Government. What he wants is some sort of recognition that a problem exists, an acknowledgement of the pressure that the trade is being put under.

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, wants to see a parliamentary debate on the plight of pubs.

The group believes that one of the main challenges facing the industry, the “unsustainable beer tax increases” is “ripping the heart out of communities”.

More than 92,00 have already signed an e-petition calling for a Westminster debate on duty rises before the 2013 budget. The campaign needs 100,000 signatories to force the discussion.

A group spokesman said: Every year, the beer tax escalator increases the tax on beer by 2 per cent above the rate of inflation, thus adding considerably more pressure on the British pub, the cornerstone of many of our communities. Removing the beer duty escalator at the next budget will help keep beer more affordable and go a long way to supporting the institution that is the great British pub.”

Kathryn Flagner, chairman of the west Cumbrian branch of CAMRA, is imploring people to sign it.

She says: “You don’t need to be a member to sign it. You don’t even need to like real ale. All you need is an email address.

“Once your local has gone, usually that’s it. If your village pub closes, the chances are it’s not going to come back.”

She adds: “It’s much more sociable to go out and meet other people than drinking in the house.”

According to one view, pubs are not the cause of binge drinking but a possible solution to it. Ideally they offer a more civilised and more sociable approach to the nation’s favourite pastime, curbing the worst excesses seen late at night on the streets of our towns and cities.

David Prickett, chairman of CAMRA’s Westmorland branch, says: “If you are drinking in a controlled environment like a pub your learn to respect the people you are with, how to behave and how to act.

“When people go out after pre-loading on bulk-purchased supermarket alcohol and finish up at a nightclub you often see the worst extremes that come from alcohol abuse. But if you are in a controlled, supervised environment where the publican wants to look after you and keep the house in good order then you learn how to behave and how to behave and to treat people with more respect.”

Philip Tuer, of CAMRA, has certainly seen drinking patterns change.

He says: “When I started drinking very few people drank in the house – and if you did as a youngster it was controlled by your parents.

“If you went to the pub then the publican would keep a close eye on you. It would be a case of; ‘you have had enough to drink: no more’.

“Unfortunately that doesn’t happen so much. You can walk out of a pub straight into a supermarket and buy much cheaper alcohol.

“Certain age groups will have a couple of drinks before they go out and the publican will have no idea how much they have had. Also, they don’t stay in the same pubs and the publican doesn’t have the opportunity to keep an eye on them.”

But while pub overheads and tax continue to force up the price of a pint, the likelihood is that people will continue to get tanked up at home either as an alternative to going out or before going out to make their evening cheaper.

Paul Scott, owner of Vine Bar and The Grapes in Workington, often finds that many of his younger punters are already drunk when they arrive. Consequently many will not spend as much behind the bar.

He says: “The problem with any pub is that young people don’t come out until late – after 11pm – and they have already been drinking supermarket booze.”

Last year Paul was among the publicans who launched a blue band scheme in a bid to revive the once thriving town circuit.

The idea, which offered discounts on gigs and in certain pubs and takeaways, was not as successful as hoped.

Paul believes that putting on more entertainment is the way to pull in the punters in what has become a very challenging trading climate.

“My view is that you can never compete with the supermarkets: they will always sell drink cheaper. But if you offer entertainment and charge a little bit extra for your drinks that makes it more profitable. I don’t think people mind paying £2.80 for a pint if you put on free entertainment.”

If you want to help safeguard this ancient institution visit www.saveyourpint.co.uk to sign the e-petition.

Or better still, pop down your local for a pint. Cheers!

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk