Brewers in Keighley are calling for a reduction in beer tax to help in the battle against giant pub chains.

Charles Dent, boss of award winning Keighley brewery Timothy Taylor, and micro-brewer Jack Atkinson, who runs Goose Eye brewery with his son David in Keighley, want to see a reduction in the excise duty on ale.

They are backing a campaign spearheaded by the Society of Independent Brewers and the Campaign for Real Ale who claim the level of tax is penalising smaller breweries in the battle to compete against global giants, like Interbrew.

The Society says less than a quarter of UK pubs are available to small breweries.

Mr Dent said: "The real issue is the level of excise - more than anything else that has caused the closure of breweries. A reduction would also reduce the margin between our beers and foreign beers, which encourages racketeering."

Mr Atkinson said he wanted to see a sliding scale of duty based on the number of barrels produced by each brewery. The more the production, the higher the tax.

"We want to see something in the region of a 50 percent reduction for smaller breweries," he said.

He said big beer companies and breweries already had a huge advantage because they were able to offer large discounts on their beers.