A MULTI-award-winning pub near Basingstoke is closing at the end of this month after its owners have been slapped with an electricity price hike of more than 400 per cent.

The Fur and Feathers in Herriard will close for good on Sunday, January 29, its owners Peter and Fran Whitehead revealed on Facebook.

The couple had previously applied to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to turn the pub into a house.

Peter said it is with great sadness that they decided to close the independent pub, which they bought in 2010.

The pub’s electricity contract runs out at the end of January, and Peter and Fran are staring at a dramatic rise in prices if they have to take a new contract.

READ MORE: Fur and Feathers owners apply for change of use as energy prices soar

“There are many other inflationary pressures that exacerbate the situation but the electricity and LPG (gas for cooking) price hikes are the main ones,” Peter wrote on Facebook.

“We thank those that have supported us over the last 12 years since we re-opened after the Fullers closure in 2010. We did our best, and we got through a pandemic, but rising costs will price us too highly to give good value.

“We will retire to deliberate how we can possibly continue with a fresh offering. If villagers would like to contribute to this process by offering up suggestions as to what you would like a village pub to be please contact us. Please contact us for event catering both here and in your own home.”

Herriard has only around 100 houses and Peter believes even if everyone in the village visited the pub once a week, it would still not be sustainable.

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He said: “The utility price increases are such that we'll be losing more than £1,000 a week. We'd have to fill it every day, every session to be able to make ends meet. And it's just not possible where we are.

“When we bought the pub we considered that we would probably be able to make it work because we as a small independent pub don't have that big corporate infrastructure behind us to pay for. But with inflationary pressures and on top of that, the extraordinary hammer blow of the 400 per cent increase in utility prices, there's no way that we could possibly offer a profitable offering that people are prepared to pay for. Yeah. The prices would have to be extraordinary.

“We absolutely have no choice.”