A PUB chief has branded supermarkets as "irresponsible" for selling cheap booze at less than 25p a can.
Richard Sewell, chairman of Hartlepool Licensees' Association, claims that the knock-down prices are having a severe effect on the town's pubs.
Mr Sewell, 49, is concerned that a lot of his former regulars are now choosing to drink at home before
heading to the pubs later on in the evening.
A number of supermarkets now sell beer cheaper than bottled water and he is worried that this could signal the end of the quintessential English pub.
Mr Sewell, leaseholder at the Park Inn, in the town's Park Road, said: "We can't even buy alcohol for the prices that the supermarkets are selling it at.
"It seems the Government's cure for binge drinking is flooding the market with alcohol that's virtually being given away. It's more expensive to buy water.
"The Government goes on about cheap alcohol being irresponsibly sold. But it isn't coming from the pubs as far as I'm concerned."
According to Mr Sewell, the Park Inn is now just one of many pubs in the town which is struggling to make ends meet.
He said: "We'll be left with the odd pub here and there with nobody in it. The same as you're going to have fields with no cows or sheep in them."
Criticising supermarket offers such as three crates of beer (60 cans) for as little as £20, Mr Sewell said: "If a pub does a promotion and charges £10 or £12 for all you can drink, the local licensing officers and the police would be quick to deter them from doing so by saying it is irresponsible serving of alcohol."
Due to the cheap prices on offer in supermarkets and the recent smoking ban, Mr Sewell says that the festive period was the worst he has ever seen.
Mr Sewell said: "The police were congratulating themselves because higher patrols kept the trouble down.
"But it was the worst Christmas for the licensing trade in terms of takings.
"I have talked to taxi drivers and they say New Year was the worst they have ever had.
"The cheap drink drives people into their homes. There was very little trouble in Church Street, but how many extra cases did they get in streets and houses?"
