‘SENTIMENT does not make profit.’

And with that another Guernsey pub bit the dust.

The decision to allow the former St Saviour’s Tavern to be developed into flats was presented in the open planning meeting as a victory for common sense over whimsy.

Residents of the area who had campaigned for the pub’s reinstatement were told that, really, they were better off without it.

And anyway, there are 10 bars within two miles and 100 within five miles.

A hundred working men’s pubs like the Ritz? Or mostly licensed premises (aka hotel and restaurant bars) where paint-spattered work trousers, hobnailed boots and an earthy vocabulary get you quickly shown to the door.

One statement did ring true: Guernsey is not special. Pubs are closing across Britain – 39 a week at current rates. The reasons are well aired: tough drink-drive laws, the smoking ban, cheap supermarket booze, night crime, the recession.

Less often mentioned is the keenness for land speculators to make a quick buck. The Tavern, for example, will be sub-divided into three flats which, given the area and size of the plot in a prime St Saviour’s location, will each easily exceed the current £250,000 average.

Even given high development costs, that’s not a bad investment for a building which cost £285,200 four years ago, certainly much better than the returns on investing in a rundown out-of-Town pub.

Which, presumably, is the reason so many other island taverns have closed: The Salerie Inn, Caves de Bordeaux, West End Bar, Beehive, Rohais Inn, Duke’s Arms, Hangman’s Inn and more.

And each that closes is a loss to its community – one fewer place for a darts, pool or euchre team to call home or for workers to unwind at the end of the day and friends to meet.

It is also one more reason for home drinking to increase. With supermarket alcohol so cheap many pub-goers will opt to do their drinking (and smoking) in their own living room rather than traipse a mile or more to the nearest pub.

So, while it may make financial sense, mourning the steady decline of the island’s pubs is more than just whimsical sentiment.