The family which ran a pub in the district for 25 years said they have been forced out of their livelihood and are now struggling to find somewhere to live.

Howard and Mary Wellwood are licensees of the Commercial Inn, in Church Street, Keighley, which closed at the beginning of this year.

They and their son Wayne, who also worked at the pub, said the property’s owner – Ei Publican Partnerships – is pushing them out because it wants to turn the business into a managed premises.

The family, who live directly above the long-established town centre venue, said Ei’s financial demands had driven their business to the brink.

A spokesman for Ei said it had made “concerted efforts”to come to an agreement with the family.

But Wayne Wellwood said: “We’ve had the rug pulled from under us.

"It’s just a nightmare.

“We closed the pub on New Year’s Day because we couldn’t afford to keep it open.

"If we’d stayed open we’d have gone bankrupt.

“I’m 42 now and I’ve lived here since I was 17. We’re waiting for the bailiffs and at the moment we’ve got nowhere to go. We’ve got four dogs, which makes it difficult to find a new home.

“All my mum and dad had wanted to do was run the pub for another four or five years then retire, but instead they are being made homeless. That’s their reward.

“Other people who worked for us are now unemployed, including one lad who started here when he was 17 and was with us for 13 years. It’s disgusting.”

As previously reported in the Telegraph & Argus, Ei had stated it was in talks with the Commercial’s publicans and that the premises would continue to trade as a pub.

Mr Wellwood junior explained his parents had taken on the pub 25 years ago when it was owned by a company called Whitbread.

He said Enterprise Inns, which later changed its name to Ei Publican Partnerships, bought the property about 12 years ago, immediately hiked the rent, and since then has made it progressively harder for his parents to continue trading.

“Ei have never done anything for the building,” he said. “We haven’t even had a proper sign outside for the last seven or eight years.”

He said the pub missed its chance to use a National Lottery funded scheme for Keighley town centre to renovate its property, after Ei failed to properly follow up the grant application.

He said in 2014, an Enterprise Inns area manager told his father the company wanted the family out, because the company intended the pub to be a managed premises instead.

Mr Wellwood said this would make it cheaper for Ei to run the pub.

But he argued it was unlikely the Commercial Inn would be viable as a managed pub, warning it would probably end up being shut down then sold off.

The spokesman for Ei responded: “Despite our concerted efforts, and several meetings with the publican and their legal representatives, we have been unable to agree a mutually acceptable way forward.

“We would like to reassure local people that the site will continue to trade as a pub for the benefit of the local community.”