It is with some sadness that I read about the impending demise of the Lynton Tavern. Being ST16 I am not a regular there, nor have I ever been, but I have a lot of good buddies who live up there (big shout out to ST17) and I know how important the pub has been to them.
I can't begin to imagine how many significant events will have taken place in the Lynton Tavern over the years (it was built in 1957). How many lads had their first pint there? How many victories celebrated and how many sorrows drowned? How many couples met through the then smokey haze and went on to lead happy lives together. So many important moments in the unwritten local history of the area will have taken place here that it cannot, to my mind, be disputed how central to community life the Lynton Tavern has been. If it goes there will be a gaping hole where there was once a thriving community hub.
But what is the reason for it going? The answer is plain and simple, ladies and gentlemen - greed.
About 20 years ago a certain government lead by a certain lady decided to add a bit of "competition" into the brewery and pub market. What emerged were large companies owning large chains of pubs. They made an awful lot of money and they continue to do so.
But these are trying times, what with the smoking ban and competition from supermarkets selling 'cheap' booze (I always have to laugh when I hear that phrase - ask the rest of Europe what they think of our alcohol prices and they laugh, too).
"There is no such thing as society" that certain lady once famously said, probably because that was what she and her sort wanted people to believe. As individuals we are more easy to divide and conquer, and sell things we don't want or need to. And she her scheme went very well for her, so well that when another party came to power, having spent 18 years being unelectable, they continued her crusade and even went further than she would ever have dared to. That government stopped caring about the people they represented and who elected them and started sucking up to big business.
Fast forward to today - the global financial meltdown and the biggest recession for over 70 years, and the proof that markets do not, can not and will not regulate themselves. Big businesses which exist to exploit customers for profit at any cost, human or environmental, have gone bang and we, the taxpayers, have bailed them out, not that we had any say in the matter. The unjustifiably high salaries continue. The bonuses continue. The rot continues.
But where is the bailout for the community in Baswich? Punch Taverns wanted £50,000 in annual rent for the
Lynton Tavern, a huge and unjustifiable sum of money. I expect Punch Taverns thoughts were along the lines of "Well, if we make £50 grand out of the place we are laughing all the way to the bank. It won't matter if they sell a single pint because we have made a mint out of the place already this year."
Unsurprisingly, nobody took them up on the offer, presumably because it would have been impossible to make enough profit because of the extortionately high price of the lease. So, it looks like the building will be sold and the pub closed. Perhaps they wanted to sell the place anyway and the £50k was a ruse.
Now, you may be asking yourself why I am writing this when I don't have a connection to the pub and don't live nearby. Well, I am just upset and angry.
What upsets me is that Punch Taverns don't care. They don't care about the pub, its memories and its place as a centre for a community. I am angry that something so important for hundreds of Staffordians can be taken away from them forever on the whim of someone who clearly does not care for the area or its people. And for what? More profit?
Good people of Stafford, I say we deserve better. I say it is high time we reconsider our attitude towards the large companies which operate most of the shops and services in our town. Let us do more to support our genuinely local businesses, run by people we know and trust not to do things like shut our local pub down because of their own greed. Let us give our business to Staffordians like you and me, who care.
I can't begin to imagine how many significant events will have taken place in the Lynton Tavern over the years (it was built in 1957). How many lads had their first pint there? How many victories celebrated and how many sorrows drowned? How many couples met through the then smokey haze and went on to lead happy lives together. So many important moments in the unwritten local history of the area will have taken place here that it cannot, to my mind, be disputed how central to community life the Lynton Tavern has been. If it goes there will be a gaping hole where there was once a thriving community hub.
But what is the reason for it going? The answer is plain and simple, ladies and gentlemen - greed.
About 20 years ago a certain government lead by a certain lady decided to add a bit of "competition" into the brewery and pub market. What emerged were large companies owning large chains of pubs. They made an awful lot of money and they continue to do so.
But these are trying times, what with the smoking ban and competition from supermarkets selling 'cheap' booze (I always have to laugh when I hear that phrase - ask the rest of Europe what they think of our alcohol prices and they laugh, too).
"There is no such thing as society" that certain lady once famously said, probably because that was what she and her sort wanted people to believe. As individuals we are more easy to divide and conquer, and sell things we don't want or need to. And she her scheme went very well for her, so well that when another party came to power, having spent 18 years being unelectable, they continued her crusade and even went further than she would ever have dared to. That government stopped caring about the people they represented and who elected them and started sucking up to big business.
Fast forward to today - the global financial meltdown and the biggest recession for over 70 years, and the proof that markets do not, can not and will not regulate themselves. Big businesses which exist to exploit customers for profit at any cost, human or environmental, have gone bang and we, the taxpayers, have bailed them out, not that we had any say in the matter. The unjustifiably high salaries continue. The bonuses continue. The rot continues.
But where is the bailout for the community in Baswich? Punch Taverns wanted £50,000 in annual rent for the
Lynton Tavern, a huge and unjustifiable sum of money. I expect Punch Taverns thoughts were along the lines of "Well, if we make £50 grand out of the place we are laughing all the way to the bank. It won't matter if they sell a single pint because we have made a mint out of the place already this year."
Unsurprisingly, nobody took them up on the offer, presumably because it would have been impossible to make enough profit because of the extortionately high price of the lease. So, it looks like the building will be sold and the pub closed. Perhaps they wanted to sell the place anyway and the £50k was a ruse.
Now, you may be asking yourself why I am writing this when I don't have a connection to the pub and don't live nearby. Well, I am just upset and angry.
What upsets me is that Punch Taverns don't care. They don't care about the pub, its memories and its place as a centre for a community. I am angry that something so important for hundreds of Staffordians can be taken away from them forever on the whim of someone who clearly does not care for the area or its people. And for what? More profit?
Good people of Stafford, I say we deserve better. I say it is high time we reconsider our attitude towards the large companies which operate most of the shops and services in our town. Let us do more to support our genuinely local businesses, run by people we know and trust not to do things like shut our local pub down because of their own greed. Let us give our business to Staffordians like you and me, who care.
