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The South Herefordshire village of Ewyas Harold is situated 10 miles from Hereford towards the Welsh borders - what you'd describe as a rural village with reasonable amenities to hand.

But Marc Buffery, the landlord of one of the two pubs there, says: "Rocketing fuel costs are putting rural pubs out of business."

Marc came to the Temple Bar Inn two years ago and established a well frequented pub, serving good food and ale.

Closures probable

He now says: "The government are neglecting rural areas and making it difficult for people like me to operate.

"Business is down by at least 10% and yet fuel costs have increased by around 40%.

"I cannot go on absorbing these costs much longer, I'm between a hard rock and a wall."

He feels he shares his concerns with 90% of rural publicans and feels a lot of them will go to the wall if something's not done soon.