From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Nicola Jordan, 22 October 2022.

Landlady of the Five Bells pub in Hoo quits after seven months due to cost of living.

The landlady of a village pub is quitting the licensing business because of financial restraints and the decline in the number of customers.

Lynn Fisher is leaving for pastures new, just seven months after taking over the Five Bells in Hoo.

Lynn Fisher, landlady of the Five Bells is quitting pub trade.

The grandmother in her late 50s, said: "I have had enough. There has to be more to life than struggling to pay the bills and having to work the seven days a week."

Ms Fisher is relocating to Devon on Monday, November 7 – the day the new tenant is moving in.

She added that the rise in the cost of living has kept the influx of young families moving into the rapidly expanding village, away.

She said: "They cannot afford it. It is dead during the week. They work during the week, come home have tea and go to bed."

While business picked up at weekends, with Sunday roasts proving popular, Mrs Fisher said she relied on a few regulars to keep afloat.

But after five years in the trade she fears the disappearance of the local pub is looming fast.

She added: "The customers we do have are getting old and when they are gone they will not be replaced by younger people at the rate we are going.

"The pub used to be the hub of the community, but now there is not that connection."