The January sales are under way at pubs across North Lincolnshire as licensees start their fight-back against cheap supermarket prices, falling beer takings and high taxes.

Both managed and tenanted pubs have launched 2012 with a host of special offers on drink and food to keep the tills ringing.

Scunthorpe High Street's Abacus is selling selected ales as cheap as £1.29 a pint and knocking as much as £4.51 off certain meals.

Across the road at The Penny Bank staff are operating a loyalty card system, giving customers a free pint for every 10 they purchase.

The owners at Ambrose Taverns have also pledged to peg the price of a pint of John Smiths at £1.75 for as long as possible.

The Blue Bell in Oswald Road, Scunthorpe, has been selling Ruddles best bitter at £1.29p – 66p below the normal price – and has slashed the cost of a cup of coffee by 50p.

Manager Paul Ferguson is also offering businesses – no matter how big or small – 20 per cent discounts off meals for employees with proof throughout 2012.

So far both Tata Steel and the Lloyds Mortgage Centre in Scunthorpe have signed up for the discount deal.

Over at The Priory Hotel in Ashby Road, Scunthorpe, manager Paul Jez Cookson is offering drinkers a sandwich of their choice with chips and a pint of ale for less than £3 between noon and 5pm Monday to Saturday.

Bargain-hunting drinkers need not travel too far to find similar deals.

Children can eat for £1 on Wednesdays at the Dolphin,Yaddlethorpe, providing their mum or dad buys a main meal, and the pub is also offering unlimited refills of selected soft drinks between noon and 9pm daily. Brigid Simmonds, the chief executive of the British Beer and Pubs Association, said the highly-competitive offers were aimed at getting people out of their homes to start Britain's year of celebrations in the right way.

Meanwhile, the operators of The Foundry Arms in Scunthorpe are said to be delighted at an offer from North Lincolnshire Council to reinstate the pub in Library Square.

The pub has been closed as the adjoining multi-storey car park in Carlton Street has been demolished.

Andrew Mappouras, who runs the Foundry with his dad Chris, said: "We are over the moon and we hope to re-open the doors in July, giving the 15-staff their jobs back."

The council's chief executive Simon Driver confirmed: "We will reinstate the pub and continue our dialogue with affected parties, subject to the terms of the lease."