BASINGSTOKE'S Wetherspoon pubs will reopen next week, the chain has confirmed - but more than 300 of its venues will have to remain closed. 

The Maidenead Inn, on Winchester Street, and The Angel on Potters Walk, will join 435 Wetherspoon pubs across the UK opening while the area they are located is under Tier 2 restrictions (including 17 pubs in Scotland where the regulations approximate to tier two in England.)

It comes after the government placed all of Hampshire in Tier 2 - meaning that pubs and bars have to remain closed unless operating as restaurants, with alcohol service only allowed with a "substantial meal". 

A further 13 Wetherspoon pubs in England, which are classified as tier one, will reopen. In addition, there are 51 reopening pubs in Wales, where the regulations approximate to tier one in England.

However, the company has 366 pubs which will remain closed. 315 of these pubs are in tier three in England. 51 are in Northern Ireland and Scotland. These 51 pubs have similar restrictions to tier three in England.

These will not open with the others on December 3, with the chain saying that takeaway only is "unlikely to be a realistic proposition."

Wetherspoon CEO Tim Martin has previously spoken out about his anger at pubs being closed - claiming that transmission of the virus in such venues has not been proven to be high.

Addressing the recent three-tier system announcements, he said: "The company has campaigned for pubs to revert to the rules agreed between the pub industry, civil servants, local authorities and health officials, which were introduced when pubs reopened in July.

“These rules greatly reduced pub capacity and provided strict social distancing and hygiene standards but, with difficultly, allowed pubs to trade viably. It is very disappointing that yet another raft of regulations has been introduced, which has effectively closed half our pubs. In reality, the government has extended a form of lockdown, by stealth, in large swathes of the country.

“There has been no evidence of widespread transmission of the Coronavirus in pubs, as the Test and Trace system has evidenced. 

“Wetherspoon has produced a magazine, illustrating the errors of judgement made by the government and SAGE, which it hopes its customers and the public will read.”