A pub with no beer

Last night I met up with a brilliant group of people.

They're trying to save their local pub.  It's the only pub in the area and the owners are looking to sell it - potentially to become a supermarket.

Planning regs allow for pubs to be unceremoniously turned into retail spaces without so much as a "by your leave" (aka Planning Consent) since it's considered to be "Permitted Development".  But these guys aren't happy with that.  They want their pub back so rather than just whine and demand that "something must be done" they've got off their collective backsides and, despite having day jobs and busy lives they've launched into a project to bid for the pub with a view to owning and running it themselves.

The pub is on the fringes of Eastbourne - it was built in the 50's along with the estate that surrounds it.  Last night one of the group members told me how his family ended up in the area when a large employer relocated to Eastbourne from London, encouraged the pub to be built and installed the landlord and landlady from one of their favourite pubs in London for the benefit of the workers.

What a brilliant story, and what a shame it would be for it to come to an ignominious end as another faceless supermarket.

Fortunately, communities have a little more power since the various bits of the "Localism Bill" came into law.  They can insist on being able to bid when buildings or land of community value are offered for sale.

The first stage was it to get it on the local authority's Register of Assets of Community Value.  It was at this stage I heard about the group because I'd been involved in a similar registration for another pub, a little nearer my house.  I met them for the first time then, and immediately liked their sense of purpose and determination.

The application for registration was successful so the project can move to the next stage - the one where we find out whether it's even possible for this community to raise enough money to buy the place.

Keep your fingers crossed for us - and if you're passing the Parkfield at some point in the future, and it isn't a Co-op then drop in for a pint, eh?