Landlord bucks trend and opens new pub

Apr 11 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A DEFIANT landlord has shrugged off all the doom and gloom in the pub industry and opened a new free house in Longwood.

Businessman Keith Vear has thrown open the doors of The Old Cask Inn on Leymoor Road – for the first time since it shut in August.

The pub, formerly known as The Albert, was one of dozens of Huddersfield pubs to fall by the wayside over the past few years.

Keith, from Golcar, who already runs two pubs in Kirklees and one in Calderdale said the re-launched pub was his first free-house and said he was determined to keep the good old local on the map.

He said: “I’ve been in the pub trade for such a long time and I’m sick of pubs shutting down.

“I just wanted to revamp a never to be opened again pub.

“Free-houses are definitely the way to go.

“Pub companies are killing the trade.

“They are not encouraging decent landlords to get involved.

“They are too greedy.”

And Keith poured cold water on the notion that there were too many pubs around.

He said: “In town centres perhaps there are too many but from a local point of view, no.

“You need to have a choice and support your local pub.