New Delight
Posted by Robert Collins, Friday, July 5, 2002It think it's a bit rich for people on this site to brand the owners of the New Delight as failures. The fact is they've sunk a great deal of time, effort and money into the place. Unfortunately times do change. Peoples leisure habits change. The economics of a country pub in a tiny village can change.
The big profits are made by city centre pubs packed full of 20-year-olds swigging Bacardi Breezer from the bottle. A few local regulars plus the odd rambler popping in for 1 pint and a butty on a Sunday lunchtime are just not sufficient to sustain a pub these days. Passing trade all but evaporated with the foot-and-mouth disaster.
Yes, it is a shame to see the place close, but hardly surprising in today's economic climate. There are couple of people posting here who suggest that the owners should somehow be prevented from benefiting from the New Delight's potential value as a house, but should sell the place cheaply as a going (but struggling) concern. How naive is that? It would be snapped up by a speculator for peanuts, only to be shut down weeks later and turned into a house after all.
The closure of country pubs is a function of demographics. It's sad, but it's a fact of life in the 21st century. We all like the idea that our house is worth a lot of money. That old pub in the next village is less important to us.