Hyndburn landlord gives up pub lease rather than lose money (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Hyndburn landlord gives up pub lease rather than lose money
8:10pm Monday 13th December 2010 in Baxenden
By David Watkinson
, Deputy news editor
LAST ORDERS: The Dog and Partridge has closed
A LANDLORD has given up the leasehold on his pub for nothing rather than keep losing money.
Mark Graham, 52, had run the Dog and Partridge in Back Lane, Baxenden, for six years with his wife Elizabeth.
But it has now closed after falling customers and rising costs.
Mr Graham, who has been in the pub business for 16 years, said he believed that many other pubs like his would go the same way.
He said he had been trying to sell the lease for £60,000 but decided simply to give it up for nothing rather than continue to lose money at the pub.
Mr Graham said he had seen little help from local authorities or the brewery, Scottish and Newcastle, which owns the pub.
He said: “With the price of everything going up and customers going down we just could not survive.
“There have been a lot of problems.
“Supermarkets selling cheap beer is a problem as is the smoking ban and the change to licensing hours has had an effect.
“I’ve closed the pub and I have no idea when the brewery will open it again but enough is enough.
“I have been left with nothing after investing a lot of money and hard work.
“It used to be a job you could make a decent living out of but I am out of it now.”
Mr Graham said he had started working as a delivery driver part-time since closing the pub last week but was looking for a new career.
Brewery bosses said that it was hoped that the Dog and Partridge would reopen shortly.
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