A local father of three who has lived in Llandogo all his life has been banned from the village pub for trying to save it!

John Griffiths was delighted when the Old Farmhouse Inn, which has been a village pub for some 30 years, apart from period between owners, celebrated a revival after refurbishment. "For the past eighteen months or so it seemed the old days were back," said Mr Griffiths.

It came as something of a bolt out of the blue to discover there were plans to close the pub and turn it into a dwelling house. In his life, John has seen a steady decline in the amenities of the village, with the Post Office, another shop, cafe, the Log Cabin and, more recently, the Police Station, all falling victims to "progress."

"It seems the only thriving place in the whole village - the sad irony of it all - is the Priory Nursing Home. Is this to become the focal point of village life?"

With this in mind, John set out to try to save the Old Farmhouse. He has collected many names for a petition against the closure and soon discovered he had a lot of support.

Arriving at his favourite hostelry one night soon after the petition had been circulated, he was told he was not welcome and therefore, banned. This particular night happened to be his son's birthday and it had always been a tradition that he and his family spent their birthdays at The Farmhouse, but on this occasion the family was turned away without a drink.

"It was very upsetting. We have always chosen to celebrate our birthdays there. We have many happy memories of the place - it is our past, our heritage. A whole chapter will close with it."

Instead of the happy night they had anticipated, they said they returned home humiliated, simply for exercising freedom of speech.

Added John: "We are entitled to fight for something we believe is essential to village life. It's nothing personal - we're simply not going to liedown and watch it disappear forever."

Another local resident, June M Smith said. "The names will be submitted soon and there is a great deal of support in the village. But John is the one who is being ostracised for his beliefs."

However, licensees, Robert and Sian Bird say that while they sympathise with John Griffiths and have nothing against him personally, they had had no option but to close the Old Farmhouse because they were unable to run it as a going concern.

"We're only a little band - my wife, myself and one other person do everything between the three of us, from cleaning the pub, doing the cooking and serving behind the bar.

"We've reached the point now where we have had to give in - there's no way we can actually survive any further."

Mr Bird pointed out that many of those who signed the petition were children or visitors from away who would not use the pub regularly.

"Everyone wants to save the Farmhouse, everyone wants it when they've something special to celebrate, like a birthday or an anniversary, and we have a loyal band of people who come regularly and who we enjoy serving but it's not enough to sustain the business - it's unfortunate but it's a fact of life.

"We love the village and we like the people we've met, it's been great. We've been welcomed and hopefully, we've given a good welcome to the people who have come in. It's unfortunate though that the way our social life is going, people tend to buy drink from the supermarket or the corner shop and do a lot of entertaining at home. Being in a country area, if people can't walk to the pub, they're not going to risk drinking and driving."

He added that when they had tried to put on entertainment to attract more custom, there had been complaints from neighbours and they had been told by Environment Health that music would not be permitted. They had also not be able to get planning permission to erect an accommodation sign. . Their problems were further compounded by the fact that a housing development was being erected in front of the pub which would block out the visibility from the main road.

Mr Bird said he felt that the village was too small to support two pubs and that hopefully the other pub, The Sloop, would benefit from the closure of The Farmhouse.

"I'd like to think that we've never taken anything from the village - that we've given the village something for the past 18 months."

Mr Bird said that if anyone wished to buy the Farmhouse, it was for sale for £250,000 - the sum they needed to break even.

"If the people who signed the petition form a consortium and put up their property as collateral, they could get a loan and run it as a co-operative but I fear they would be in for a shock when they find it's not profitable.