BITTER drinkers have slammed their local for charging £3.60 for a pint of lager nearly £1 more than a leading Mayfair pub.

Regulars at The Inn on the Green in Cookham Dean arrived at the pub in the New Year to discover the landlord had hiked up the price of a pint from £2.60 to £3.60 a staggering 38 per cent increase.

The price of a similar premium lager in a branch of The Pitcher and Piano in posh Mayfair is just £2.80, and residents in Cookham are hopping mad.

One local, who refused to be named, said: "It's just way too much. I go out in London a lot and I have never known it to be as much. They are trying to stop people like me going in because I am a local.

"They want to keep it for people staying there and eating in the restaurant."

Landlord Tim Wilson claimed the price hike, which is 54 times the rate of inflation, was justified because customers could sit on leather sofas and because it was a restaurant.

He added that the inn, which is on Cookham Green Common, compared with other restaurants in the Cookham area.

Another angry local, who also asked not to be named, said that the sofas had always been reserved for those eating in the restaurant in the past.

He said: "Now we are allowed to sit on the sofas, but paying £3.60 to sit on a seat is mad.

"Everyone I know who used to go there thinks the same. My attitude is blow it, I will go there anyway, but I just can't afford to.

Mr Wilson said: "With a pint of lager you get to sit on nice leather sofas and read a newspaper, and we are a restaurant with rooms."

"We do not turn away bar customers but they get treated the same as restaurant customers.

"I would say we should compare it with restaurants in London."

Bottled beers at the pub are similarly expensive at £3.50 per bottle, which is 25p more than at The Ivy restaurant in central London a favourite hang-out for stars Noel Gallagher and Tom Cruise.

A spokesman for The Pitcher and Piano said: "We are committed to offering first-class service and surroundings. The comfy leather sofas, polished wooden floors and grand piano are simply part of the Pitcher and Piano package."