CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE

• UK's pubs are under threat!
• Community Pubs Week
• Beer and birds - a Devon holiday
• Roy Rides - to Alconbury

Each year CAMRA branches conduct a Pub Watch Survey, to determine how many pubs have closed and how many new pubs have opened during the preceding year.

This years survey revealed some very disturbing facts and trends. To start with the survey indicated that over 650 of the UK’s estimated 50,000 pubs closed permanently during 2005—that’s 12.5 pubs every week!

CAMRA Branches were also asked to report on pubs which closed during 2005 but where their future was uncertain (i.e. they might or might not reopen), and pubs which had closed before 1 January 2005 but which might yet reopen. This revealed that an additional 1,000 pubs are currently closed and face an uncertain future. We can be fairly sure that quite a number of these “temporary” closures will become permanent.

A total of 1650 pubs, over 3% of the UK's pubs, closed in a single year!

What is especially noticeable from the figures is the extent to which pub closures have become an urban problem - those who live in towns and cities will very much recognise this. Many planning authorities now have policies to protect rural pubs, especially where they are the last in a village. Policies to protect urban pubs are much rarer, though these are often every bit as much the centre for a local community as their rural equivalents. CAMRA will be campaigning to persuade urban authorities to include suitable policies in their new Local Development Frameworks. The Huntingdonshire Branch of CAMRA has had several consultations with Huntingdonshire District Council on this topic.