HEARTBROKEN landlord Andy Prestwich has said his family will have nowhere to go when they are evicted from their pub in the next few weeks – despite the Liddington community rallying round to help them.

The Sun Inn in the village has now been stripped by bailiffs after Mr Prestwich, 54 – who has been at the helm of the village pub with his wife Jayne and daughter Christine, 13 – since August 2007, ran into financial difficulties with the owners, Admiral Taverns, to the tune of £24,000.

Despite the local community coming out in support of the Prestwich family by replacing the tables and chairs that were taken and organising local bands to play for free in a bid to raise the cash, Mr Prestwich says there is no way they will be able to get the money together.

He said: “Our beautiful pub has been stripped of everything – every table, every chair, every plate, every fork and every drop of spirit.

“If we lose this pub we will lose our home and so will our 13-year-old daughter.

“The people in our community have been fantastic and they have helped us through the worst time of our lives.

“They have literally turned up in droves to help – one night I had a woman pull up in a horse box full of tables and chairs – it is so overwhelming.

“They are absolutely gutted that we are in this situation – since we came here we have turned this pub around and spent £60,000 of our own money into making it what it is today.

“There is no way we will get this money together but we have nowhere to go.”

Mr Prestwich said the money they owe is down to rent arrears, failed beer payments and fines for using other breweries to supply beer.

He says the eviction process will take around eight weeks and at the end of that time he and his family will have nowhere to live.

Yesterday Admiral Taverns confirmed that Lloyds Banking Group is working on a financial restructuring of the struggling pubs group that is thought to involve a £600m debt-for-equity swap.

The deal means Lloyds will in effect take control of Admiral, which it inherited in last year’s acquisition of Halifax Bank of Scotland, although it will stop short of owning a 50 per cent majority stake.

A spokesman for Admiral Taverns said: “We are currently in talks with the landlord of The Sun Inn and no final decision has yet been made about his future at the pub.”