I was so appalled at pub next door being demolished and turned into newbuild homes I BOUGHT it myself

A NEXT-DOOR neighbour was so appalled at a pub being demolished for newbuild homes that he bought it himself.

A local has stepped in to snap up an under-threat boozer in Kent after being horrified by the prospect of it being knocked down for housing.

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Dino, who already owns adjoining Littlestone Hotel, insists he will keep The Captain Howey in New Romney running.

He said a London-based firm had approached the former pub-owners offering £1million as long as they could buy his hotel too.

But he had no intention to sell – and instead swooped in to buy The Captain Howey himself, KentOnline reported.

Dino said: “I was worried someone was going to wipe out the Howey next door for apartments – when it was put up for sale, within no time we put in our offer.

“Pubs are closing and people told me to be careful, but we didn’t want anybody turning up with a digger.

“The Howey has been let down for the past few years and I thought we could bring it back to its former glory – there is a lot of work to be done there but it will be a good project and good for the community.”

He has owned his 16-room hotel for 20 years.

His move came as a remote pub on the Isles of Scilly, Britain’s most southwesterly, went up for sale.

But in nearby Cornwall a series of pubs are closing down tomorrow with their owner blaming spiralling costs.

And fans are mourning on Facebook the loss of an “iconic” art deco pub, which used to be a cinema, in Forest Hill in south London.

Meanwhile, a pub in Wales has shut amid complaints from neighbours that it had been turned into an “Ibiza-style” dance venue.

England and Wales‘s overall tally of pubs, including those vacant and being offered to let, dropped to 39,404 at the end of June – down 383 from 39,634 in the first quarter of the year.

Some 386 pubs were lost throughout the whole of last year.

Giant pub chain Wetherspoon has shut dozens of pubs across the UK, including in Derby, Brighton and Hove and London – suffering like others with rising costs brought on by high inflation.

Another pub and bar chain Stonegate, behind brands like Slug and Lettuce and Be At One, also plans sell-offs to reduce debts.

And earlier this year Marston’s Brewery, based in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire, put 61 pubs up for sale.

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk