Cut-throat competition has erupted in city-centre pubs as they vie for trade within just yards of each other.

Smaller businesses complain the new 'big boys' are undercutting them with cheap drinks which they can't follow.

But the newcomers say they are meeting demand and stopping a drain of customers to nearby Leeds.

Now companies operating two city-centre pubs have gone into administrative receivership.

And their problems follow a warning from Bradford Inner City Licensing Association that the business is at saturation point.

But Catherine Pinder, manageress of the Whitbread-run pub the Old Bank, which opened in 1997, said: "Since we have been open, trade has been really steady. There hasn't been much growth year on year, but it has been steady.

"Since there are more places opening up, it stops people from going to places like Leeds at night.

"I think the more places there are, the better for us.

"We really need somewhere decent for people to go after the pubs have closed."

The new Bar 2B on Westgate has opened in recent weeks, and manager Phil Hughes felt Bradford drinkers needed a wider choice to what was offered by large breweries.

He said: "It is very much a big brewery mentality and I think the people of Bradford are suffering from it.

"They just get what they are given. They don't get anything different from any other town in the country.

"There is a trade out there. We are just trying to give them something better and we have got the individuality to do things."

Orla Morgan, manager of O'Neill's on Kirkgate, felt that customers felt more comfortable in surroundings where they knew what to expect.

She said: "I have been here three weeks and trade is fine.

"I think people like familiarity, they know what they are going to get, whereas a lot of people won't go into bars they don't know."

Trevor Sheard, manager of the Fates and Firkin pub in Ivegate, said it was a case of a wider choice being better news for everyone.

He said that publicans could benefit from trying to bring more people into the town as a whole.

He said: "I think we ought to work more closely with each other.

"Rather than working for different breweries, we are all managers within Bradford."

But Damien Lambert, communications secretary for Bradford University Student Union, felt there was a danger of the market being saturated.

He said: "I think there are a lot of pubs opening in town and it has got to the stage where the market is being saturated.

"I imagine perhaps three or four pubs will end up closing because of lack of trade.

"If you go into town during the week, a lot of pubs are dead.

"They are aesthetically pleasing, but I think they are competing for the same trade."

Tony Niland, a member of the Council's licensing sub-committee, said: "People want change and choice. We should not try to limit it."

Chairman of the Council's economic initiatives committee Councillor Tony Cairns said:

"I thought the licensed trade was buoyant and I hope these closures a blip."

But chairman of Bradford Inner City Licensing Association David Haigh said he thought there should now be some licence restrictions.

He said: "Christmas trade has been dire for some people."

New pubs in fight to survive

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