‘We couldn’t afford to fight on for our pub’ IT will be a bitter sweet Christmas for regulars who have lost the battle to save their Winchester pub from the bulldozers.

The new year will begin with the closure of the Stanmore Hotel in Winchester, much to the disappointment of an army of regulars who battled for over a year to stop it being demolished.

January 2 marks the final day that pints will be pulled at the pub that will be turned into a 56-bed care home. The death knell was sounded in October, as reported by the Daily Echo when a government appointed inspector allowed the redevelopment.

Among the campaigners was Glenn Sumner of Sheridan Close, Stanmore, who has been a regular for 30 years. He said locals had wanted to challenge the planning inspector’s report in October that allowed the demolition but that would have cost tens of thousands of pounds.

He added: “We haven’t got that money.”

The inspector’s decision came after Winchester City Council rejected the plans earlier this year.

Mr Sumner said they would hold a farewell party at the pub, but no arrangements had been made yet.

Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Winchester, Martin Tod said: “Everyone in the campaign is stunned but they know that they couldn’t have done any more.

“You only have to read the campaign website to see how strongly people feel about the Stanmore Hotel.”

The pub is owned by Marston’s, but was previously run by Eldridge Pope, which signed the deal with Colten Developments. It is building the care home and said this week that it was committed to the scheme.

However, a company spokesman said the demolition would not start immediately after the closure.

He said: “We have a lot of hoops to jump through before we can even contemplate demolition because there’s a lot of planning conditions to satisfy first.”

He added that closing the pub on January 2 was the brewery’s decision.

No one from Marston’s was unavailable for comment.