Hexham pub owner slams Wetherspoon price slash

And last night Colin Reid, 62, who has owned the Ye Olde Cross Inn on Narrowgate, Alnwick, for more than 20 years, said the decision by Wetherspoon to lower prices would make competition impossible.

He said: "It's hard enough at the moment and this makes it almost impossible to compete. Independent pub owners would be making a loss if we tried to lower our prices to that level."

But Peter Harding, the chairman of the Hexham pubwatch scheme and owner of The County Hotel, said pub owners had already learned to live with the low prices on offer at the chain pub - and it was the supermarkets that were the major threat.

He said: "It is a problem and we have to respond to it. But they have and always will offer low prices and we've got to live with that.

"The real problem is the supermarkets pricing pubs out of the market."

But John Hutson, Wetherspoon chief executive, defended the move, claiming the firm was trying to help people in the economic slump.

He said: "We believe our food and drink prices will allow people to enjoy a visit to a Wetherspoon pub without it costing them too much."

Keith Down, the company's finance director, said: "We are just sharpening our offers. We are still quite expensive relative to the supermarkets."