THE owner of a Monmouthshire pub which locals are fighting to save told a public inquiry yesterday that there has been a vitriolic and malicious campaign against his family.

James Sharp, (pictured) of the Red Hart Inn, Llanfapley, near Abergavenny, which closed in October 2002, was speaking at the public inquiry into his appeal against Monmouthshire county council's refusal to allow him to change the pub into a private house.

On the second day of the inquiry at County Hall, Cwmbran, which more than 60 locals attended, Mr Sharp said: "For two years we have been subjected to a course of harassment that has at times been anti-Semitic and racist. There has been a series of poison pen letters.

"My wife (Jean) and grand-daughters had been deeply distressed by this malicious campaign, and it has had a significant effect on my wife's health."

He also hit out at the Red Hart Supporters' Group, which was set up after the pub closed.

He said: "Of those who have objected, the majority seldom or never used the pub."

Mr Sharp said the pub closed because he had been running it at a loss, and 15 pubs have closed in Monmouthshire since 1998 for the same reason, seven of them since the Red Hart closed.

Questioned by Nicholas Cooke, counsel for the supporters' club, Mr Sharp agreed he had received four written offers to buy the pub, which he claimed was then worth £475,000. He added: "I did not reply because the Red Hart is our home and we did not want to sell."

Monmouthshire councillor Brian Hood said he had been lobbied more about the closure of the Red Hart than about any other issue he had dealt with in 15 years.

Dr Jill Featherstone, for the supporters' club, said the Red Hart had been at the heart of the village since before 1643, and offered a wide range of social functions.

Cards, dominoes, darts and pool were all regularly played until Mr Sharp and his family upset some of the players. The pub was also a meeting-place for many other groups, including the cricket club.

She said there was now the problem of social decline in the village, as newcomers were not getting to know the rest of the community. At the end of the hearing the inspector, Robert Gardener, visited the Red Hart and said his decision will be made known in the next few weeks.

After the hearing the supporters' club chairman Geoff Burrows dismissed any allegations of racism or a hate campaign as "utterly irrelevant".

"I don't know where these empty claims have come from but there is nothing to substantiate them and certainly, as far as we are concerned, race has nothing to do with it," said Mr Burrow.

"Mr Sharp has not been very specific about his allegations and the only assumption we can make is that he is referring to a poster which involved a caricature of him.

"If that is what he is referring to, I can assure you the poster was perfectly legal and not racist in any way. Even so, it was not sanctioned by the committee and clearly was a case of someone doing it off their own back."