A SENIOR councillor has expressed her sorrow at the apparent demise of one of Burnley’s landmark venues.

The Talbot Hotel, at the corner of Church Street and Ormerod Road, has been mothballed after a troubled 2009.

Previously it had closed temporarily before it was reopened, and placed up for sale, for a brief period. Now it is has closed down again.

Ward councillor and Labour group leader Coun Julie Cooper believes the pub’s state may just be a “sign of the times”.

The nearby White Hart pub, a popular live-music venue, has also been placed up for sale through business property age-nts.

And just a stone’s throw away, the Litten Tree in Yorkshire Street, closed for more than 18 months, has known at least two different identities since it reopened.

Commenting on The Talbot’s fate, Coun Cooper said: “It does seem a shame because this is in one of the oldest parts of Burnley and this is probably a listed building.

“The changes in people’s drinking habits do appear to have had an adverse effect on the pub trade, with more people drinking at home.

“The days of the working man propping up the bar until all hours appears to be over.”

Elsewhere there have been some glimmers of hope for the pub trade, with the former Yates’s Wine Lodge, in St James Street, taken over by pub giants Wetherspoons and relaunched as the Boot Inn.

Other former pubs like the Gordon Lennox at Cliviger, the Bridge Inn at Hapton and Padiham’s White Horse have been sold off but their futures are linked to housing or retail schemes.