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Steve, I'd not looked at this thread for ages, so missed your posts. I have signed the petition, and hope it works! I knew things were bad, but genuinely had no idea just how bad they'd become!


I am a regular of the CPT, and I worry for it's future. The "owner" or lease holder wants rid, because she's making nothing on it. People avoid it because they think it's scruffy, but she's not going to spend the money it needs to do it up, because she doesn't have it, and the pub is never going to make it. She wants rid, but can't flog it, and Punch Taverns still have it on their website for a hefty amount for the 10 year lease.


As things stand, the pub doesn't have much of a future, and this saddens me, as it has been the place I have met many of my best friends. I even met my wife through someone I knew in there, and I stayed in Australia with the parents of the current manager. It may sound corny, but it's more than just a boozer to me, it has an old school pub feel (not like the Castle in case you're reading DPF) that you don't get down Lordship Lane, and I fear that in a couple of years it will be a memory.


Anyway blah blah blah, didn't realise the problem was so wide spread. Hope something gets done, but unfortunately I'm not confident.

Come to The Ivy House 40, stuart Rd just accross the park. The Beer is reeasonably priced,

Tonight is the first night of "Pull the other one"

A chance to meet some local luanries!!


DOORS 7.30 SHOW 8.30. ?5 entry

With gifts from Martin Soan the master of prop comedy. The great Voltini sending several thousands volts through his Madame, Nick Revell satirical Raconteur saying " however rewarding it is making TV and radio programmes, there's nothing quite like a live gig. Hopefully that cuts both ways - for the audience as well as the performer."

This exploration of the Art of Comedy should be an unmissable evening for those with curiosity for what has gone before and what is likely to be in the ever growing business of Comedy.

The gloves are off?.

Interesting article in this morning?s Daily Mail, page 34/35

Paul Kingsnorth is probably the first journalist to speak out against the pubcos in his article - The murder of the English pub. Those who have walked before him have always moderated their arguments through fear of libel action from the pubcos. Bob Roberts wrote a similar article in Fridays Mirror but he skirted around the real issues. He quoted Mark Hastings from The BBPA. The BBPA have their routes deeply ingrained with the pubcos and are not representative of the ?real? pub industry.


Fine job Mr Kingsnorth, the first of many articles and editorials you will see this summer. As I said at the start of this post, the gloves are off?.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Pubcos/

Great post Macroban, Share price across the whole pub sector have dropped on average by 50% in the last 12 months, due in the main to the smoking ban but also lack of confidence from the city bods. Wetherspoon?s turnover is down 14%, Laurel Pubs in administration, Massive Pubs in admin and Regent Inns just about to go that way as well. Obviously these companies aren?t pubcos (tied pubs) but it shows the lack of confidence from the financial powers. All that said, the pubcos are both powerful and arrogant and they will bounce back. The pubcos have 31,000 freehold properties across the UK so the City is not going to let the economy become unstable by allowing these property cartels to topple.

Punch Taverns' debt


The data are a little out of date, but I doubt things have improved since. Could be with commerical propety prices falling they now really have negative net assets. With turnover down and input costs up they could be having difficulty meeting interest payments and borrowing covenants.


Bounce back? Perhaps not this time.

With 10,000 pubs set to close this year, that?s up to 25% of the pubco estate, then please tell me why the CEO of the second biggest pubco has been aggressively buying up shares in his own company?


Now humour me for a moment, here?s a conspiracy theory for you;


The pubcos (FTSE100) are geared up so highly that they have backed themselves into a corner. With 10,000 pubs set to close this year, lots of them in affluent areas, what better way to realise the true worth than to sell them off as residential properties. In fact why not use your own valuers and transfer them to your own managed residential property arm? 12 months ago Enterprise Inns applied to the Government for a REIT status (Real Estate Investment Trust).


Of course the Government would need to be party to all of this so why not spread lots of propaganda about binge drinking (out of 57,00 pub licenses there are only 22 pubs with 24 hour licenses) Increase tax on alcohol, Introduce an illegal smoking ban and then when these boarded up pubs become an eyesore, relax local planning restrictions and turn them into residential.


Win, win, win for the pubcos!! But what about the 10,000 publicans who have been destroyed and lost everything?


Answers on the back of a postcard??

There seems to be a financial dividing line between Peckham Rye East and West. East Dulwich prices are pretty steep compared to Nunhead across the common. Ivy House: Stella, Kronenburg, Guinness ?2.85; Fosters, Carling ?2.65. Wetherspoons is cheaper, but I don't fancy downtown Peckham as a socialising area. Waverly Arms 5p a pint cheaper still, but you may feel out of place(very cliquish). Man of Kent 25p more. Incidentally, brewery increases plus the budget would require about 25p increase minimum to maintain gross profit margins.

Snorky wrote:I went o surrey Quays yesterday, to the cinema

Along the ( backstreets ) route , I passed 3 pubs shut down that were open maybe a month ago , when I last passed them.



Thats why they closed down then, because everyone else passed them by too.

Whilst you can buy beer cheap at supermarkets, include a dvd, and come out with money in your pocket, pubs will remain under threat.


Like the name 'Stereforth' it takes me right back to David Copperfield.

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