A SOLD sign that allegedly confused customers and ‘damaged trade’ at a pub has finally been taken down after a row erupted involving the chairman of Wetherspoons.

Regulars at The Narrows in Abingdon were perplexed when a sign was put up above the pub that actually referred to flats upstairs.

Staff at the High Street drinking hole claimed they demanded ‘months ago’ that estate agent Martin and Co should take the board down after it initially appeared on the front of the building.

Founder and boss of the pub’s operator JD Wetherspoon Tim Martin said: “The sign misrepresents what has been sold and has a damaging impact on the pub’s trade.

“The agent has no right to erect a sign that is misleading.”

He said he had written ‘a number of letters’ to the estate agents asking them to remove it ‘immediately’ but, despite receiving a response promising action, nothing happened until last Thursday.

Pub manager Sarah Lowe said: “We’ve been trying to get the sign down for a while now. Tim Martin came in on November 4 and I mentioned it to him, he said he’d noticed it too. Businesses all down the street have signs and hanging boards out to catch attention; when you look up it is misleading.

“It didn’t say anything like ‘business not affected’ or ‘flats’. We had customers asking if it was closing. We initially spoke to them a few months ago on a pub level and then the team at head office got involved.

“We are happy now, that’s all we wanted – to get it down or have it with a clearer message. We are a business in the High Street and it will have had some effect on us.”

Shift manager at the pub Julie James, pictured, said: “People thought it was the pub for sale or the whole building; it was causing confusion for the locals. I couldn’t say how long exactly it’s been there, but it’s been months.”

The pub opened three years ago and she said a ‘fair few’ customers had asked staff members if it was already being sold on.

A manager at the agent’s branch in East St Helen Street, who did not want to be named, said scaffolding was required to take the sign down and this could not happen ‘overnight’.

She added: “It was removed on Thursday once we had the request from them. I can’t see that the sign would have affected trade. "You would have to look up at the building to see the sign; under no circumstances could I see it having an effect.”