PUBS are often described as the lifeblood of a community but as you’ll have read on a recent front page, they’re sadly becoming somewhat of a dying breed.

Sure, many of our locals are busy on weekends but the killer for them is slow weekday trade – long gone are the days of thirsty workers heading for a post-shift pint.

After years of rising costs, a fresh increase in alcohol duty – which came into force on February 1 – landed on a sector already operating on wafer-thin margins.

Taking over a pub that doesn’t have a food offering and attempting to turn a profit is no easy feat; things such as higher staff wages, hiked tax and energy bills have all collectively put many nails into the rapidly de-oxygenising coffin.

However, the most fatal blow has simply been changing habits. People don’t drink as much these days, the younger generation don’t go out a lot and the knock-on impacts of such things have been catastrophic for an industry that relies on communities.

In many ways it’s been a perfect storm: the damaging Covid-19 pandemic saw venues closed for months on end, bounce-back loans only acted as a plaster over a gaping financial wound and everything was then exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis which added soaring energy costs into the equation.

So, unsurprisingly, several landlords across Barnsley have issued a stark use-or-lose message to customers; they’re there now but unless things change, the already eye-opening closure rates will continue to increase. They’re doing their best, with many persevering, albeit working on reduced opening times and some even only throwing their doors open to the public during peak weekend times.

That’s why you’ll see a few bars on Market Hill in the town centre, for example, looking eerily abandoned during the week and then coming alive on a Friday and Saturday night.

Snail-pace trade during weekdays has rendered their business unviable – indeed some landlords in the town centre say that it actually costs them more to open than what they’d subsequently take in sales. When you’re faced with such a conundrum, it’s no wonder that we’re losing pubs at a rapid rate.

Barnsley’s branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has now written to the council and the town’s three MPs calling for more support to be given to pubs, social clubs and local breweries.

To be fair to the council, they’ve done more than most: rates have been frozen and there’s clearly a good relationship between landlords and those in the town hall – nobody wants to see empty, boarded-up premises, after all – but it’s the government that’s received a tirade of criticism from who the Chronicle’s spoken to.

It’s their policies – despite the town’s MPs waxing lyrical about what they’ve done for the hospitality sector as the elections loom – that’s tightened the noose, according to landlords. It’s all well and good hearing MPs say that they value pubs but unless they do anything to curtail their closures, they’re just empty words.

Praising the government’s work in the hospitality industry is sickening for landlords who’ve weathered multiple storms in the last five years.

National Insurance, mandatory pay increases and that aforementioned rise in alcohol duty were all cited by landlords – and Rachel Reeves’ budget did not help plug any gaps and instead plunged them further into the mire.

Price increases will add further pressure this year on a sector that has already seen more than 15,000 pubs close between 2000 and 2024, according to British Beer and Pub Association figures. The longer-term picture remains bleak, too. The body warned that hundreds more venues were at risk, with thousands of jobs hanging in the balance.

For many operators, the question is no longer about growth or recovery and instead it’s all about whether keeping the doors open is still possible.

Far too many of our valued and historic pubs have been lost due to distant corporate interests, serving only the interests of shareholders which have over-ridden those of the small business owners actually operating each pub and the local communities that have relied on them.

It is, of course, vital above all else that people continue to make a point of actively using and enjoying our pubs – a pub of any kind can only operate and survive if people support them.

If we ensure we visit our local pubs on a regular basis, and also campaign together to support, promote and protect pubs everywhere, then we can turn the tide of closures, and the future for pubs can be brighter.

Whatever happens next, it’s clear something big needs to occur in order to save stricken pubs whose livelihoods are at stake – the use-or-lose warning may seem a little dramatic at first but our pubs’ futures really are hanging by a thread.