JD Wetherspoon wants Holyhead's Empire for pub

Sep 10 2008 by Elgan Hearn, Holyhead and Anglesey Mail

PUB chain JD Wetherspoon has put in plans to transform Holyhead’s Empire Cinema into a pub.

The application, however, has received a frosty response, including from the Pubwatch scheme which has sent a letter to Anglesey County Council objecting to the proposal.

Stanley Arms landlady Linda Roberts said: “There are enough pubs in Holyhead.

“There are over 40 here already, when you include clubs and restaurants. In the current economic climate Holyhead is already becoming a ghost town.

“We understand the concept of competition, but we know that Wetherspoon can sell their beer at a cheap level, and we pay the same from wholesalers.

“I fear that this would see an increase in binge drinking and could pose law and order problems in the town.

“Weekend trade is usually good but you can’t rely on it and people don’t come here for a night out. “There’s nothing to entice them here so we all rely on our locals and if they can get their drinks cheaper, then they’ll go there.”

The Empire Cinema hosted its last bingo evening on December 31, 2007 and closed completely in early February, only to re-open the cinema and continue to screen the latest films.

Eddie Gershon, a spokesman for JD Wetherspoon, which has over 700 pubs throughout the UK, said: “We have a number of pubs in Wales but the region is underrepresented.

“We have converted over 20 cinemas and they are rebuilt from within once we receive the necessary permissions.

“We are always looking for interesting buildings to convert it’s how we like to show our style.

“We believe in never being blase about how many people we hope to attract to our pubs but many people like what we have to offer.

“A lot of people have stopped going to pubs, but we would not be investing in Holyhead if we did not believe that we could attract people there.

“Usually we would still be in negotiation with the building owner as buying the premises is conditional to planning.”

On Monday, staff at the cinema were unaware of the application and owner Gareth Jones was unavailable for comment.

New figures from the British Beer and Pub Association reveal that 36 pubs are shutting every week.

The BBPA, whose members own 57,000 pubs, said the rise was due partly to rising beer duty, and said beer sales are at their lowest level since the 1930s.

Holyhead mayor Cllr Ailia Lewis said: “I’m against this. I don’t want to see the cinema closing.

“If I had to I'd beg the owner not to sell to Wetherspoon. We need to keep a cinema in Holyhead.”

elgan.hearn