TODAY the Evesham Journal starts the search for the town’s most popular watering hole with the launch of the Pub of the Year award.

Voted for by the public, the aim is to find the most popular pub in Evesham whilst celebrating the many fantastic watering holes in our town.

The winning landlord will receive an Evesham Journal Pub of the Year 2018 trophy and be invited to the Houses of Parliament by the town's MP, Nigel Huddleston.

Voting is open now and closes on November 30, so use the slip in this week's Journal to name your favourite pub and tell us why it deserves to win.

Anyone can vote, whether a member of staff or a loyal customer, but we'll only accept slips from the newspaper as votes, not photocopies, to avoid any ‘tactics’.

We’ll be profiling popular pubs and those put forward for the award in the newspaper and on our website over the next six weeks, until voting closes on November 30, and the voting slip will be published each week.

The winner will be announced in the newspaper and on our website on Thursday December 6.

Mr Huddleston said: “Pubs play a crucial role in the social and economic life of Worcestershire and the UK at large. They are a crucial part of my constituency's economy, with 109 pubs in Mid Worcestershire, supplying 1,857 jobs and £23.7m in wages in 2017.

"In total, pubs in my constituency add £56.3m to the local economy. I have always been an advocate for the place of pubs in local British communities for their positive social benefits as well as these clear economic positives and I will continue to make their case loudly in Parliament."

Evesham Journal editor Michael Purton said: “There are some brilliant pubs in the area and we want to highlight them. In this era of cheap booze in supermarkets and developers eyeing up pubs to try to turn them into housing, it’s important we all do whatever we can to support our pubs because they are far more than just places to eat and drink – they are community hubs.”

If you’d like your pub to be featured over the next six weeks, email michael.purton@newsquest.co.uk