Publican in coffin hunger strike

A pub landlord from Kent is staging a hunger strike in a coffin to highlight the "exorbitant" charges he claims are killing the pub trade.

Colm Powell, 44, who faces losing the lease to three pubs in Tonbridge, blames the company that owns them for increasing rent and beer prices.

Enterprise Inns, which has obtained permission to end his lease, said he broke conditions set out in agreements.



Mr Powell, from Dublin, said he was "prepared to die" for his cause.

To highlight his plight, he has been lying in an oak coffin at the Punch and Judy, which won Kent Pub of the Year in 1996.

The hunger strike, which began on Monday, is planned to continue until 8 October when he is due to be served with an eviction notice by Enterprise Inns.

There's a news video here.