Owner of rural pub defends decision to turn it into house
‘nobody is going to tell us what to do with our building’
Published:
THE owner of a rural pub last night angrily defended his decision to close its doors to the public and convert it into a house.
David Cooper, 52, has been criticised by members of the local community since the closure of his Aberdeenshire country pub in September last year. But now he has hit back at objectors and the “regulars” who, he said, rarely made paying visits.
The Midmar Inn, at Midmar near Alford, had operated as a pub for around a century before it closed after three years under the ownership of Mr Cooper and his 37-year-old partner Debi Begg.
Mr Cooper, who also runs an oil industry consultancy business, blamed the closure on a lack of regular community support, high fuel prices, the smoking ban and the availability of cut-price alcohol in supermarkets.
He sent an angry letter to the Aberdeen, Grampian and the Northern Isles Campaign for Real Ale where he attacked several local groups and sports teams for their lack of regular support. He said some customers had grown to expect cheap beer, charity prices and occasionally groups had the “brass neck” to take in their own snacks and drinks.
Mr Cooper said it would cost around £150,000 to bring the building up to standard after discovering it was “stuck together with sticking plasters”. He denied the move was a way to get a cheap house from a defunct pub.
Last night he said: “We were both unhappy to shut the pub. We felt we had failed in some way but believe me, we busted a gut to keep this place running. People don’t have a clue how difficult it is. The pub lost money every week we kept it open.
“There just was not the returns and we were not prepared to throw £150,000 at this place when there was no guarantee we were going to get that back.” Mr Cooper said many groups would use the pub for one-off events but would hardly drink or eat there at any other time. “It’s not a charity so I’m not going to subsidise people’s beers. The ones that made the most noise were the ones who came to eat once a year if you were lucky,” he said.
“This building is owned by Debi and myself and nobody is going to tell us what to do with our building, our money and our future.”
The Friends of Midmar Inn Action Group set up a website which hopes to let the “market” decide the future of the pub. Organisers said the closure was “shocking”.
