Any time Enterprise Inns announce “we tried to find a buyer for the pub but no-one was interested”, or Tesco say, “we’re just delighted to be able to offer local residents convenient shopping and bring 20 jobs to the area”, just remember that they are saying this as they jointly kill off another irreplaceable piece of English heritage.

Chequers Kingswood to become a Tesco, story in yesterday’s Evening Post.

The gist of it is this

Enterprise Inns say “We can confirm that we have exchanged contracts with Tesco on the Chequers site. This comes after our having advertised the lease of the property for over six months… during this time the premises only attracted one offer for continued pub use, which was subsequently not progressed by that party. We believe the development of this long-vacant site by Tesco will bring the property back into a use which will be of benefit the local community and provide significant local employment opportunities”.

Chequers Kingswood

But at the recent public meeting to discuss the future of the pub, to which Enterprise were invited but chose not to attend, at least two interested parties said they had expressed an interest, but been turned down by Enterprise. In addition, the landlord had already expressed an interest but said he was told Enterprise had withdrawn the pub from sale.

Tesco say “We are in the very early stages of our proposals. We hope to start meeting local councillors, businesses and residents in the coming weeks. This is ahead of any planning application being submitted”. We very much hope they will take these meetings seriously and see that conversion of this pub is no-one’s interest, given the local ill-will they will engender.

But there’s a bigger problem here. If Enterprise are going through the motions of putting pubs up for sale, but turning away or putting off interested parties, then that’s not going to provide any sort of reliable evidence that a pub is ‘not viable’. Of course, all we have is hearsay at this stage. And it’s not as if Enterprise have a track record of this sort of stuff…

Of course, The Foresters in Westbury-on-Trym was an Enterprise Inn, but is now a Tesco Express…
Oh, and the Friendship in Knowle, that’s a Tesco… used to be an Enterprise Inn.
Oh, and do a google search on ‘Enterprise Inns’ and ‘Tesco’ together and you’ll see campaigns against this practice in Weston-Super-Mare, on the Norfolk broads, in Maidenhead, in Lowestoft, in Bromley and plenty more besides.

But Enterprise have their own agenda (as do other pub-owning property companies) and Tesco have theirs, which in no small measure involves expanding its convenience store empire. So actually it is unrealistic to expect them to be that bothered about pubs and our heritage, and the devastating effect on whole communities where the only way they can get alcohol is in cheap supermarkets with no regulation over what state they are in when they drink it. Remember, pub landlords are legally bound not to serve people when they are incapacitated by drink. Supermarkets don’t need to worry about that, because people can take their drink out into the community and get wrecked well away from the store.

Of course it’s not just Enterprise, nor just Tesco… but this trend is costing us pubs all over the place.

The Standard of England in Southmead is now a Tesco; The Bell in St George, Tesco; the Fellowship in Filton, Tesco; the Cromwell in Congresbury, Tesco; the Lord Rodney, a Co-Op; the Royal Oak in Portishead, Tesco.

This is why we need legislation to protect these pubs.

Now, many of the pub owning property companies like Enterprise and Punch have significant debt issues to address, and so disposal for cash of underperforming sites is an understandable practice. And of course, if there is another pub owned by the same company nearby, it’s in the owner’s interests if the pub is converted and therefore cannot be a competitor of the owner’s surviving pubs.

This is why we need legislation to protect these pubs. Today conversion of a pub to a Supermarket doesn’t need planning permission. You only need planning permission for structural changes, signage, adding cashpoint machines etc.

It is up to us, the people, to ensure that our elected governments take responsibility for the greater good (that’s their job, after all, to balance the needs of commerce with the needs of society). We need legislation that makes sure pubs have to be genuinely given a fair chance to thrive, not just a bit of lip-service prior to a pre-agreed sale and conversion.

So, if you care about the systematic and economically unnecessary devastation of the British pub industry, what can you do? Firstly, if your local is under threat, join the campaign to save it. Try and have the pub registered as an Asset of Community Value, sign petitions, object to planning applications, let your voice be heard. It isn’t futile, pubs ARE being saved, or bought by local community collectives, or protected from change by successful planning challenges. Not enough pubs, granted, but it is possible.

Right now, visit The Pub Scandal petition and sign it. Let’s force Government to take this stuff seriously before we end up with no pubs left.

Have a look at the Bristol Pubs Group website. It’s run by volunteers from the local CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) branch, and is dedicated to doing all it can to help local communities with advice and guidance as to how to protect their local. If you agree with what they are trying to do, maybe think about joining CAMRA. No hard sell, but I can confirm I am a member even though I have been known to drink things other than Real Ale.

Major change for the better is caused by the people pressuring politicians to serve the people better. This is no exception.

Think I’m talking rubbish. Leave a comment (keep it civil) below!