REGULARS at the Coachmakers Arms fear for its future after its award-winning pub licensees left.

Yesterday's Sentinel described how Jason Barlow and Sue Grocott, pictured below, had left the Hanley business amid pressures from health problems, rising beer prices and the two-year fight to prevent it from being bulldozed.

The pub would be demolished under current plans to build the new East West shopping centre.

Retired post office worker Ken Rowley, from Leek, has drunk in the pub for four decades and meets there with friends every Wednesday.

The 74-year-old said: "I first came in when I was 18.

"It is so friendly and yet they are on about knocking it down. I think that's disgusting.

"Jason and Sue have worked wonders."

Steve and Jo Riley, from Hanley, held their wedding reception in the Coachmakers in 1991.

And it was where pipefitter Steve's dad took him for his first pint in 1974 as he turned 18.

The 54-year-old said: "We have seen different publicans come and go but Jason and Sue are among the best.

"I think it will eventually be bulldozed. It is sad to say, but I think they will get their way.

"We will find somewhere else to go but hopefully someone else will come in and take it on for as long as it has got left."

Retired publican Richard Hughes, who used to run Hanley's Queen's Arms, has been using the Coach for four decades.

The 59-year-old, who lives in Hanley, said: "Jason and Sue have done sterling work to save the pub, but I think that the powers that be had already made their mind up.

It is a shame that the city's buildings are being demolished."

Pub owner Admiral Taverns is believed to be looking for a new tenant.