REAL ale campaign group Camra says 600 pubs across the country are now listed as so-called ‘assets of community value’.

The figure includes up to 20 pubs in North Yorkshire and the North-East, including pubs in Harrogate, Thirsk, York, Tyneside and Northumberland.

Pubs can be nominated for the status by local groups, providing the community with an opportunity to bid for the property should the owner decide to sell.

Camra said the figures showed just how much people valued their local pub.

However, it warned that the scheme, introduced by the Government, was being undermined by loopholes in planning legislation which allow pubs to be converted into supermarket convenience stores and other retail uses without the need for a planning application.

Camra spokesman Tom Stainer said: “Planning permission is required to convert a convenience store into a pub but no permission is required to convert a pub into a convenience store. The lack of protection for pubs is a glaring anomaly in the English planning system which needs to be corrected. “It is surely not right that a supermarket convenience store is given greater planning protection than a valued community pub.”

The organisation estimates that despite efforts to protect pubs, 31 a week are still closing down in England.