TRADITIONAL pubs in Chester are under threat because too many venues have flooded the market in recent years, an expert has warned.
Frank Marnell, the chairman of The Chester Licensed Victuallers Association, made the claim following a number of high-profile pub closures over the past few months.
Once bustling establishments such as The Peacock Hotel and the Wheatsheaf, both in Boughton, and The Golden Eagle, in Castle Street, Chester, have shut their doors following steep declines in business. Other closures which have shocked loyal pub goers in the area include The Greyhound Inn in Saughall.
Frank, who runs the Watergate Inn, near the Chester Racecourse, said the poor business climate could also be attributed to the recent recession, cheap booze from supermarkets and the smoking ban.
But he said he expected more of the city’s longstanding pubs to shut down due to a sudden rise in competition, led by a number of “sleek bar/restaurants” which have proliferated the local area.
He said: “Pubs at the moment are finding it so difficult. There are not so many clientele coming out. There doesn’t seem to be the influx of customers we normally get at this time of year.
“We have too many restaurant-type wine bars opening. The clientele is not increasing, however it’s getting spread. This means a lot more competition.
“Although it reached a peak of 58 pubs a week closing down across the country, it’s now dropped to 42 at the moment. But the problem is we have a lot of people coming into the pub business. As a result we have lost a lot of established licencees.
“It’s time we looked at how many venues we have in Chester and how many will survive because the more that we get, whether it be another cafe or whatever, it’s going to make things more difficult for everyone.”
He added: “The reality is everyone is tightening their belt. You can’t turn around and say you are going to spend something that you don’t have. The luxuries are gone. The last three months have really been detrimental to the licence trade. You only have to go up the north coast and you can count closed pubs on every other corner.
“It’s foreseeable that you will see more pubs shut. As opposed to what the Urban Land Institute think, I think Chester is a viable place and people will come here and they will try to go to these venues.”
Brian Vardy from the Chester branch of Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) said: “There are a lot of pubs in this situation at this moment. The reason is that the pub companies require such large rents that they are unable to make the pubs pay.
“The supermarkets in particular are selling very cheap alcohol which people find attractive to drink at home. We would make the point that people drinking cheap alcohol at home is a totally unsupervised activity, whereas if you drink in pub premises it is supervised which places control upon you.
“I think the pub culture here probably is a bit under threat but in Chester itself we are quite unusual in that we have seen quite a number of openings as well. I could point to the Brewery Tap in Bridge Street, probably Oddfellows, we have two Wetherspoons. In Chester itself we have seen various openings, but if you look to Ellesmere Port that is a different story, they have had quite a few closures not as many openings.”