Last year more than 400 pubs closed around the UK, and faced with soaring costs and plummeting consumer demand, publicans have been left with little to crow about.

Surely things might be different at the Scared Crow in West Malling?

While other pubs are buffeted by the ill-winds of economic misfortune, might this back street pub-restaurant take flight above the dark clouds and find new ground – maybe even feed on the misfortune of other pubs that fell by the wayside?

Or is the Scared Crow also about to croak?

In the end, no amount of crow-related metaphors are likely to save anyone, and sitting in the corner of the pub on a Sunday afternoon, landlady Tina Beadle is in no mood for jokes about corvids... for a start it's far too close to the word Covid.

"Before the pandemic everything was running great, and then we we were shut for so long," she says. "We were practically shut down for a year-and-a-half – when we opened again we thought that was the worst it would be.

"After Covid, things picked up slowly, then all of a sudden we hit the problem with Ukraine, the cost of living and energy prices. Food, oil – everything's gone up.

"The oil that we use to cook with would be £23 for a drum, now it's £49. Every month here we have six to eight ten-litre drums of oil, and that's just for a tiny pub like this.

"Beer, spirits and mixers have gone up drastically too. Every single week I'm getting letters saying there are price increases. It's gone up around 20%, but I can't keep passing that to my customers, so I try to save costs elsewhere to make it up in other ways, but it's very difficult. It's a constant struggle."

Over in the opposite corner of the pub, singer-songwriter Andy has struck up with a slow mournful number – apt and beautifully sung, but hardly an antidote to the depressing conversation.

Tina takes a moment to compose herself, distracted by the lyrics perhaps, then explains how she feels like she's "bashing my head against a brick wall" – not because of the singing, but because of its so hard to increase revenue or make savings.

"I don't want to lose staff", she says. "It doesn't matter how small your pub is, you still need the staff for the busy days.

"You're still paying gas and electric and like everyone else my energy bills have gone up 100%. Even in small pubs like this, if I've got two people coming in the evening I've got to keep the whole pub heated. It's not like your home where you can say just shut that door and switch off a light bulb here and there.

'Even in small pub like this, if I've got two people coming in the evening I've got keep the whole pub heated'

"You've still got to have the beer to sell, even if people aren't coming through the door. If you haven't got it to sell you've got no income.

"It's nigh on impossible for a small independent pub like mine to survive."

To make matters worse, another effect of Covid was that some former punters fell out of the habit of going to the pub, while passing trade is also yet to reach previous levels.

In other words, The Scared Crow is facing the same problems as pubs around Kent and the UK as a whole – and offers a perfect example of the pressures traditional watering-holes are under.

"After Covid, tourism fell globally," explains Tina. "West Malling is a touristy town but we weren't getting people coming from abroad to stay. That hit footfall through the door, and it hasn't come back.

"Before Covid we had a healthy turnover, but it went down to less than nothing – if we didn't open as a takeaway, we would not have survived."

Nevertheless, on this particular Sunday there's a healthy crowd, with a growing appreciation for singer Andy.

He's onto a Leonard Cohen cover now...."Now I've heard there was a secret chord, that David played, and it pleased the Lord, but you don't really care for music, do you?"

It seems plenty of people in the pub do in fact care for music, not least Tina herself, and a new open mic night has been one way to get more folk flocking to The Crow.

Last month saw the pub packed to capacity with people keen to see what was going on, but whether or not that can engender a long-term rise in fortune is yet to be seen.

The truth is it will take more than one open mic night a month to turn things around, no matter how insanely strong the field of local musical talent.

What could help would be a bit more support from the government, explains Tina.

"There are a lot of people saying the £50,000 bounce-back loan, should have been a grant, not a loan. We had to start paying that back just after Covid – we weren't given time to get back on our feet before they were demanding payments. It has been extremely tough."

She believes support from local government should also have been more forthcoming during and after the pandemic.

But instead her main contact with both parish and borough council came when the pub was declared an "Asset of Community Value".

It's a contentious issue. While many locals see the value in saving the Scared Crow, it's also Tina's nest egg; and although she's hoping to retire, that has been put on hold since the ACV.

"I appealed the ACV in 2020, but they turned it down, because they said it was an asset of community value, even though there's plenty of other pubs around, with big companies that can afford that loss. I couldn't.

"They were too quick to put the ACV on it without asking the reason I wanted change of use, bearing in mind I've been part of the community for 18 years and have employed locally.

"None of them all through Covid came here and said 'Tina what's going on, can we help you here? We don't want to lose our little local pub.'

"No one came and said 'what are you going to do? You're opening as a takeaway, can we leaflet for you then?' No help at all. How come an ACV can get slapped on someone's business without any inclination of what's gone into this business, or what it takes to survive?"

The ACV means Tina has got to sell it as a pub or a community asset, or give the community a chance to buy it.

"We told Tonbridge and Malling council we were going to sell it and the community didn't come forward to buy it", she added.

'The sad thing is I don't think there's a future for small pubs like mine anymore'

"The sad thing is I don't think there's a future for small pubs like mine anymore. It's really sad but I don't think there is.

"People aren't interested any more in buying a tiny independent pub that's just going to tick over. In my time I've done ok, but that's not the future sadly."

But while her head says it's the end of the road, her heart will always be tied in some way to The Crow.

"I can't tell you how gutted I feel about the situation," the landlady says. "I have sleepless nights over it, because I love my customers, and I love the people that have supported me.

"I can't tell you how gutted and heartbroken it makes me feel that there isn't a market for a small pub like this anymore. I really can't."

In other words, as The Crow flies it's just a short hop from here to oblivion; and many businesses around the country are on the same flight path.

But Tina's not getting in a flap about it. Ever stoic, full of humour, and occasionally philosophical, she's bound to survive on whatever path she takes, bolstered by a lifetime's worth of bar room wisdom.

And she acknowledges that someone with a fresh look at things could still find a new way to bring the business forward.

Over on the other side of the room, Andy's building to a crescendo, accompanied by cheers and applause; the jovial atmosphere now in stark contrast to Tina's crow-black message.

For sure, one day the only thing on draught might be the cold air flowing around the unoccupied barstools, but for now the Scared Crow is full of life; and the crowd can only hope the pub survives long enough to get to the next open mic night.

Requests for next month's performers include Living on a Prayer, It's the End of the World As We Know It, and of course Blackbird.