RESIDENTS fighting to save their community pub are to air their views at a public meeting tonight.

The lights are out, the doors locked and a large wooden fence has been put up around the Elephant & Castle pub in Bursledon Road.

The meeting comes after the Daily Echo revealed that new buyers had been found for the popular watering hole.

Residents had hoped to have a public meeting earlier in the month to discuss the pub's future, which involved much of the site being turned into housing.

But tempers frayed and the meeting was cancelled when a handful of regulars threatened to take action and stop the development.

Now developer Highwood Contractors has agreed to hold another meeting to give concerned regulars a glimpse of what the future holds for the pub.

Ernie Rhodes, 73, of Barry Road, has been drinking at the Elephant & Castle since he was a young man and regards it as the heart of the community.

He said: "We have heard very little. The developer said they wanted to hold a meeting with us to let us know what they wanted to do, but then cancelled it.

"Now they are having another meeting and I believe a new landlord has been found."

Another resident of Barry Road said: "We were hoping to have our Christmas lunch at the pub. Now it looks like that isn't going to happen. Nobody has been told anything, but we do know the liquor licence doesn't run out until 2007."

Tonight's meeting is being held at St Monica Junior School, St Monica's Road, starting at 7pm.