A WELL-KNOWN publican has become the latest casualty of Swindon’s floundering pub trade.

John Doyle, who ran the Queensfield in Upper Stratton, was forced to shut the pub down last week after sky-high beer prices, rents and rates finally got the better of him.

He briefly came to nationwide attention when he barracked Ed Miliband and then-Labour leader Gordon Brown over the crippling effect business rates were having on him, during their visit to Swindon last year.

Now those rates have helped claim the fate of his pub.

Last Tuesday he and his wife bid a tearful goodbye to the building that has been their livelihood for three years. It is the second bar to have slipped through his grasp this year. As reported in the Adver, he had been set to take over The George on Eastcott Hill. But despite spending £3,000 on equipment, a change of plans last month by its owners Enterprise Inns, which also owns his current pub, left him out of pocket.

Part-time taxi driver Mr Doyle, 47 of Corsham Road, said: “They couldn’t knock my business rates down, I got nowhere with that. I’m up against the price of beer, the rent Enterprise Inns charge. They let me down with The George. I bought a lot of furniture for that.

“I just felt that if I stay open another six months, the way the climate is going at the moment I’m going to be struggling big time.

“Everyone is struggling. My accountant deals with a lot of landlords around Swindon and he said I’m not the only one in the same boat. They’re going to pull the plug on a lot of them.”

He criticised Enterprise saying the company “won’t even give you free beer mats”.

He also said planned changes to road opening times had been part of his decision to close.

The proposal was that cars should be stopped from entering the Queensfield estate from Cricklade Road between 7.30am to 9.30am and join Cricklade Road from Queensfield from 4.30pm to 6.30pm to stop rat-running.

“I’m gutted. My wife was in tears,” said Mr Doyle. “All our hard work we’d put into it, we just didn’t want to put any more savings into it.”

He said he would try to look at other pubs.

Enterprise Inns said it would not discuss its business relationship with licensees but the intention was to re-open the pub.