Three hundred pubs have shut in the West since the last General Election, as the industry suffers its worst crisis for more than a century, the Western Daily Press can reveal.

Rural areas have borne the brunt of the closures which, in many cases, have seen villages lose their last pub.

Now MPs have called Government Ministers to a crisis summit on Wednesday, March 4, to find ways of helping pubs before time is called on the industry permanently.

They say a combination of the smoking ban, increased alcohol taxes and changing social trends have added up to cause huge problems for pubs, even before the economy crashed squeezing people's spending.

The figures were published by the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, which is organising the meeting.

35 pubs close every week

They show nationally 4,271 pubs have closed since June 2005, with 3,037 since the smoking ban in July 2007, which has accelerated the rate of closures from 12 to 35 a week.

In the West, most pubs are closing in rural area, such as Taunton, where 30 have gone, Leominster (25), West Dorset (21), Monmouth (17) and Wells (12).

The figures show the constituency with the most pubs is Bristol West, with 263, although it has seen eight go since 2005, while Mid Dorset and North Poole has just 35.

Beer Group chairman John Grogan said he had invited the five Ministers "to attend an unprecedented joint meeting to find ways to bring urgently-needed help to the country's struggling pubs".

They include Public Health Minister and Bristol South MP Dawn Primarolo, and colleagues from the Treasury, Home Office, Department of Communities and Local Government and Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Labour MP Mr Grogan said: " It is now a race against time, amidst all the other problems of the recession, to get the Government to take notice and to act.

"Our task is to make the future of the community pub every bit as sensitive an issue in 2009 as the future of the community post office was in 2008."

More than 60 MPs have indicated they hope to attend, including Taunton Liberal Democrat Jeremy Browne.

His initiatives on the issue have included a Save our Skittles campaign to protect the second most popular pub game after darts, with its heartland in Somerset.

Mr Browne said landlords had been hit by increased alcohol taxation, intended to help combat binge drinking.

He noted the Government's flagship policy to tackle the credit crunch – cutting VAT – had been accompanied by increased alcohol and tobacco duties.

"Landlords feel it is hard enough as it is and they are working very long hours, and the Government seems to be compounding their problems and making life more difficult for them," Mr Browne said.

"If pubs can't attract customers they don't deserve to be successful, but their food tends to be a lot better than it was 20 years ago and many have spent heavily on providing accommodation and on decor.

"A lot of people feel there is something essentially English or British about the pub, it is part of our way of life.

"In TV programmes like Coronation Street and East Enders they are the focal point, and if a village loses its pub there is a sense of losing a social heartbeat."

The pubs crisis comes after the Government closed 2,500 post offices, including 200 in the West, while thousands of village shops have also gone.

Hundreds of churches are under threat, health bosses have slashed cottage hospitals, rural primary schools are on the danger list and critics warn GP surgeries could be next on the hitlist.

There have been high-profile campaigns supporting pubs in many West communities, including the Bell and Castle in Horsley, Gloucestershire, The Bell in Redcliffe, Bristol and Appletree Inn in Morgan's Vale, Wiltshire.

And there have been 37 major brewery closures since 1997, with more than 5,000 jobs lost, including five in the West – Gibbs Mew in Salisbury, Dorchester's Thomas Hardy Brewery, Scottish Courage in Bristol, Whitbread/Inbrew UK in Cheltenham and Usher's of Trowbridge.