Stonegate pub shuts doors
This comes after data from Altus Group warned 50 pubs a month were now vanishing from communities across England and Wales.
New managers took to the pub in September 2020, after previous owner Beccy Webster stepped down after running the site for 15 years. At 18, she became the country’s youngest landlady when she originally took to the helm.
In a Facebook post the pair said they had decided to step back as were “getting too old,” but thanked customers for their continued support.
The tenancy is being advertised with an annual guide rend of £28,000 and a potential turnover of £362,000.
The pub on Oakdale Road is managed through Stonegate Pub Partners. “The previous tenant served us notice on their agreement and so we are actively recruiting for a new Pub Partner to reopen the pub as soon as possible,” a spokesperson said.
Fantastic opportunity
In an advertisement, Stonegate said: “With an established food trade, the pub benefits from being the destination of choice in the local area and has a considerably heavy footfall.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for a new publican to run this exceptional community pub business. Stonegate Pub Partners are now seeking an experienced couple or publican who have strong food skills to continue the quality food offer whilst keeping this beautiful pub at the heart of the community.”
The number of pubs shutting their doors has soared by 50% in the last three months, with Wales and the North West losing the greatest number of pubs, according to Altus Group.
During the three months to the end of September 2022, analysis of Government property tax records, revealed 150 pubs were either demolished or converted into types of use like homes and offices.
Alarming but not surprising
The total number of pubs, including those vacant and being offered to let, fell below 40,000 for the first time to 39,973 at the end of June versus 40,173 at the end of the 2021 calendar year according to Atlus Group’s annual business rates review.
Emma McClarkin, the British Beer & Pub Association chief executive, said these figures were “alarming but not surprising.”
She continued: “Pubs across the country are desperately trying to keep their doors open to serve their communities but have encountered hurdle after hurdle while trying to recover from the pandemic.
“Energy bills and other costs are still spiralling and publicans are mostly in the dark about whether they will be able to keep their lights on this winter as they await further detail and calculations on the business energy cap from [the] Government.
“We are urgently calling on the Government to ease the cost-of-doing-business crisis for our sector by introducing a cut to VAT and business rates before we lost even more pubs and the livelihoods they support in villages, towns and cities across the UK.”
