A LANDLORD is calling time on his Bury pub after efforts to boost trade were thwarted by residents.

The Elton View Hotel in Eagley Drive will close early in June after a series of applications for late night and public entertainment licences met with resistance from neighbours.

Licensee John Holroyd, who will host a "farewell party" for former regulars and licensees on Saturday, says that a string of refusals have made the decision inevitable.

Since it opened in the early 1960s, the pub has become surrounded by housing but has suffered from declining trade over the past 20 years.

Mr Holroyd (52), who has run the pub with wife Barbara for the last 12 months, said: "There is no other pub in the area with so much housing around and you would expect this to be a very popular place, but the custom just hasn't been there.

Passing

"Being in the middle of a housing estate there is no passing trade and all we have been trying to do is find new ways to bring people in.

"The pub was there before any of the houses and people knew that they were moving next to it, but all of our efforts to make it more popular have been opposed."

Bury Council's licensing department said that concerns had been expressed by neighbours following the pub's most recent application for a public entertainment licence.

A spokeswoman said: "There were quite a few objections from residents on Eagley Drive and surrounding streets.

"The problem is that the pub is now in the middle of a housing estate and many residents did not think that a public entertainment licence was suitable.

"Many of the worries that people had were about the noise of taxis and people going home, which are outside the landlord's control."

Converted from a rural 19th century house in the early 1960s, the pub soon became a popular venue for family functions.

Following the slump in trade, brewers Daniel Thwaites have now accepted a deal to sell the land to house builders.

The party takes place at 7.30pm on Saturday.