A key politician wants to call time on a growing trend of pubs being turned into supermarkets.

Steve O Connell, London Assembly Member for Sutton and Croydon, said developers and supermarkets must be blocked from taking over such community assets.

As is stands, supermarkets do not have to apply to councils for a "change of use" to turn boozers into shops, but Mr O Connell said there needs to be tougher measures in place.

He said: "Where there is proof that the pub serves as an asset to a community, somewhere mothers can have a coffee and where people can go for pint and chew the cud, more needs to be done to protect it.

I know that will be deeply unpopular to pub companies and supermarkets, but they can look elsewhere. There is an imbalance, supermarkets are wielding a big stick and pubs are vulnerable."

Mr O Connell, who as a London Assembly member, "has the mayor's ear" on a weekly basis, wants to get the plan to block developers into Boris Johnson's London Plan in time for its update in January, and said after meeting the mayor he was "sympathetic towards the idea."

He said: "Pubs serve a vital role in the community. When I was a boy there was one on every street corner, that was too many, but now the pendulum has swung the other way."

The Croydon councillor cited the example of The Hope in Carshalton, which the mayor visited in 2011.

When it was threatened with closure in 2010, a group of regulars stepped in and is now a burgeoning business.

Statistics from CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, show that nationally, the amount of pubs closing on a weekly basis is up to 18 compared to 12 between 2011 and 2012.

Earlier this year it was announced the Angel Pub in Angel Hill is to become Tesco Express, as is The Woodman in Lower Road, meanwhile The Dolphin pub in Sutton High Street, is going to be turned into flats, with shops or restaurants underneath.