Preaching to the converted

Since Kate Moss started strutting around in T-shirts saying 'Save the George Tavern', the battle between community local and property developer has taken on a glamorous new face.

But the supermodel's campaign to stop one of her favourite pubs being destroyed by a housing development being built next door is symptomatic of a grim reality.

Alternative use

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) says 56 pubs close permanently each month as buildings are demolished or converted for alternative use.

Mostly this means housing, though more unusual examples include surgeries, nursing homes and schools.

This figure is just the tip of the iceberg - at any one point hundreds of other premises face uncertain futures as the slow grind of planning applications run their course.

Some closures are perhaps inevitable given the tough time the trade is going through. But the rate at which our pub heritage is disappearing points to a deeper problem.

CAMRA, which is seeking to raise awareness of the issue through this week's Community Pubs Week, launched on Saturday, says the problem is partly due to the gap between the value of pubs as businesses and the value of the land they sit on.

"Over the last 10 years pub prices haven't increased by as much as residential prices and they are still tied to the business revenue of that pub," explains CAMRA's head of public affairs Jonathan Mail.

The hope is that initiatives like Community Pubs Week will boost trade and make pubs less vulnerable to interference. "We want to encourage people to visit and support their local throughout the year because if people don't go to their local, it will disappear," says Mail.

And even if a business has failed, a pub should still have to meet very strict criteria to qualify for conversion, he says.

"Empty pubs should go through a thorough assessment for viability for that business and if the result is that it is viable then it should be protected and any change of use should be fiercely resisted," Mail points out.

Is conversion always bad news?

The vast majority of closed-down pubs become flats, taking the sites out of community hands forever. As CAMRA points out "these pubs are never coming back". But some are turned into local resources which can be of benefit to residents.

And while the closure of a local pub is bound to be a loss, a derelict property sitting empty for years can also have a negative impact on a community. Nottingham City Council, for example, says that areas with vacant pubs attract vandalism, fly-tipping and arson.

Whatever the pros and cons it's clear that the loss of a community pub is rarely an open or shut case.

The Nag's Head, London

The Nag's Head in Holloway, North London, was such a well known pub that the area around it became known by its name. It then became an O'Neill's, a discount shop and now gaming company Leisure World has turned it into an amusement arcade.

Islington Council rejected the application for a gaming licence last May after a concerted campaign from parents, teachers, police and politicians. But the company appealed and judges gave the go-ahead last month.

Councillor Terry Stacy says: "I'm the son of a publican and I know a lot of pubs are landmark pubs. They are the centre of communities and in the past that's what this one was. If someone turned up tomorrow and reopened it as a pub, we would welcome it with open arms."

Mary Gibson, headteacher at nearby Yerbury School, adds: "This is a central part of a regeneration area. It should be a place that attracts all ages and genders and where families can go, but amusement arcades have a very limited clientele. A nice, lively gastropub would be great. And that's what it has been throughout history."

Leisure World was unavailable for comment.

The Alma and Salmon's Leap, Worcester

It is rare to find a community campaigning against upgraded education facilities, but in Worcester a row has broken out over plans to turn two pubs into school buildings.The King's School owns two vacant pubs in the town, the Alma and the Salmon's Leap, and hopes to turn them into a pre-preparatory school and sports hall.

Peter Bottomley of CAMRA's Worcester branch says: "Before the school decided to close it down, the Salmon's Leap in particular was a thriving business. It is opposite the Royal Porcelain Museum and by the river so it got a lot of tourist trade.

"And these are two pubs in a part of the city that is being redeveloped. They are potentially good businesses that could serve all the new people moving into that area."

But school bursar Galen Bartholomew says the new facilities, which would be available to the public outside of school hours, will serve the community more effectively than the pubs."There is a big decrease in beer drinking and real ale drinking nationally. And we have quite a lot of information suggesting that Worcester has a drinking problem, particularly with young people," he says.

"So in my view the loss of a couple of pubs is not going to be significant. And what they are replaced by will be of great benefit to the area."

The Crook Inn, Tweedsmuir, Peeblesshire

Like something out of a heart-warming film, locals in this Scottish village have united to save their pub - which happens to be one of the three oldest licensed premises in the country - from being turned into flats.

The Crook Inn in Tweedsmuir, Peeblesshire, has served locals, including the likes of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns, for four centuries and is a listed building featuring a 17th century flagstone bar and 1930s art deco toilet.

But new owner James Doonan hopes to convert the property into four flats and a house in spite of more than 150 objections being lodged against the conversion.

In response, locals have formed the Tweedsmuir Community Company (comprising 60 per cent of names on the electoral roll) with a view to buying the pub under Scotland's right-to-buy laws.

Christine Parker of the Save the Crook Inn campaign says: "If we get the right to buy and raise the funds we would like to see it as the centre of the community once more. It's had 400 years serving the community and for one man to run it for five months and say it's not viable is a just a joke."James Doonan was unavailable for comment.