Credit crunch may bite city pubs

Mr Dunkley said he was introducing a darts team to encourage business

Many pubs in Oxford could go bust next year with customers opting to drink at home rather than go to their local, according to a survey.

So far this year 10 pubs have gone out of business, and Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has named others that are in a perilous position.

Tony Goulding, from the Oxford arm of CAMRA, warned: "Use them or lose them."

John Dunkley, of The Ampleforth Arms in Risinghurst, said it was going to be an "uphill struggle" to stay open.

The pub has been named on CAMRA's struggling list.

Pub 'challenge'

Mr Dunkley said: "You've got to give customers a good reason to come down. We've introduced food and put music back in.

"We're also planning a darts team and are encouraging families to come down.

"We're already seeing a difference but it's going to be a long and uphill struggle to get the pub into profitability."

I think if you don't offer food then the credit crunch will hit you Sylvia Lodge Woodstock Arms

He added: "One of the major problems is cheap booze from the supermarket."

Sylvia Lodge, of the Woodstock Arms, Woodstock, said she is working hard to survive.

"If the food's not good, people won't go out," she said. "We pride ourselves in doing all fresh homemade food on the premises and that's what people come here for.

"I think if you don't offer food then the credit crunch will hit you."

CAMRA claims that beer tax hikes, supermarket competition and the economic downturn could threaten to close 7,500 pubs nationally by the end of 2012.

Mr Goulding said: "I think some pubs are in a perilous position. Times have changed and it's a job getting people off their armchairs and out of the house."

"I think everybody should go at least once a month. If they don't like it fine, but my plea is that they should at least give it a try."

He added: "With the recession in now and some pubs struggling before it hit - 2009 could well be a challenge to the whole pub business."