A national pub chain has called time on one of its Sittingbourne branches after nearly 20 years, affecting up to 40 jobs.

The Summoner, a J D Wetherspoon pub, is to open for the last day on Sunday.

It is understood staff were told about the closure at the weekend and notices went up early this week informing customers.

One on the door of the High Street pub, written on behalf of the staffing team, said it was with great regret that it would be closing.

It continued: "We want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support over the years and we look forward to seeing you all in one of our branches nearby."

Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon added: "The 40 members of staff will be offered jobs at other Wetherspoon pubs or may wish to stay with the new owners.

"We understand that our loyal customers at the pub will be disappointed with the decision to sell the pub, however, Wetherspoon has put a number of pubs up for sale and The Summoner is one of them.

"We have another pub in the town, The Golden Hope, and hopefully customers from The Summoner will be happy to go there."

In October, the owner of the part of the building including the pub and the snooker club, put the premises' freehold up for sale at auction with a guide price of £475,000 but it failed to sell.

It was marketed as having "majority income secured by J D Wetherspoon until June 2038 (subject to option)".

Wetherspoon declined to comment at the end of last year when the Sittingbourne News Extra asked if it would be staying at the Bell Centre, or taking an option to cut short its lease early.

Last year, the firm invested £2 million in converting the former magistrates' court and opening The Golden Hope, just a few hundred yards up the road on the corner of West Street and Park Road.

At the time, it said it had no plans to close The Summoner, so-called after a character from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which features Sittingbourne.

The news comes as the pub chain announced the closure of a second Kent branch, the Paper Moon in Dartford, this week.

The two pubs were part of 50 put up for sale by J D Wetherspoon last year. No more Kent pubs are face closure.

Spokesman Eddie Gersham said: "Every now and again, we look at the estate of 950 pubs and these ones were too small for the way we wish to trade.

"The pubs in Sittingbourne and Dartford are fantastic pubs and very successful but we have second pubs in these towns which have bigger kitchens and more seating.

"A customer might ask why we are selling these pubs but we have to make business decisions."