Pubs with ‘locals’ on both sides of the bar

To combat closures, rural communities in the UK are buying their drinking houses, says Oliver Moore.

A PUB a day is closing in Ireland, and in the UK 40 rural pubs are closing each week, but there lateral thinking is arresting the slide.

In the UK, the closure of rural pubs has been offset by government support for community-owned pubs, and MP and minister, John Healey, last year announced a 12-point action plan to give practical and financial support to community pubs.

As part of this new approach, planning, licensing and other restrictions on the sale of premises are being reduced, while the rules linking pubs to the big, monopolistic breweries are being eased. Councils can intervene before a pub is demolished to allow a community to mobilise to save the premises, but it’s the support for community-owned and run pubs that is most eye-catching.

A fund of £3.3m has been made available through business supports to help communities buy into struggling licensed premises to keep them running.

The programme provides grants along with loans from Co-operative and Community Finance, and a contribution from the communities themselves.

Put this all together, and the overall cash injection into community pubs is significant.

An initiative called Pub is the Hub has received £1m sterling to act as a specialist first-stop shop for advice on business support and diversification for community pubs. Previously, Pub is the Hub had supported 300 pub-based rural services. It has seven full-time advisors and is extending its advisory services.

Part of the inspiration for the initiative comes from the success of the co-operative shop movement in the UK — which offers similar support to small village shops through the Plunkett Foundation. Pubs minister Healey says that the aim is “to put some real support behind our community pubs, giving publicans more support to diversify and punters more choice. We need, and can do more, to support our pubs which can be at the heart of a local community.”

The Old Crown is a public house in the small village of Hesket Newmarket, in the English Lake District, and it’s the two-terrace village’s only public house. The Old Crown is busy with a traditional front-of-house — but has interesting side rooms.

These include a library and a free-to-use community IT centre where locals can attend IT classes. It has also become a destination for those exploring the Lake District, such as walkers and climbers and other visitors, but also for its shareholders — The Old Crown has been a community-owned pub for eight years.

In 1999, when the brewer wanted to retire, locals were worried that the village’s micro brewery might be swallowed up by a large brewer or closed down altogether.

To prevent this, 58 villagers and supporters formed a co-op to buy the brewery.

In 2002, the pub was about to be put on the market again and locals worried about possible closure or a brewery takeover. In 2003, 125 customers formed a second co-operative to buy the pub. This became the UK’s first community-owned pub.

I spoke to Julian Ross, one of the Old Crown Co-op’s founder members, who chairs the board. “We don’t try to run the pub ourselves, we have a lease to stipulate how the landlord should run it. The main restriction is that he must buy from the brewery behind. Its a very small brewery, and we’re the biggest customer.

“So while we stipulate that Hesket-Newmarket beers are on tap, we don’t stipulate price. Some guest ales and beers are also allowed in, but they must buy from the local brewery too,” he says.

I asked him how the pub has changed with community ownership.

“Hopefully, it hasn’t changed,” he said. “The crucial difference is that the pub is viable now. We have a new dining room and kitchen, but the front-of-house has always been kept sacrosanct. We wanted people who’d been going all the time not to be upset.”

Ross says the effect on the locale has been significant: “Because the pub is doing very well commercially, the local B&B has a year-round season, not just summer. The local post office is busy too. We only use local labour and suppliers. All round, it’s just thriving a bit more now,” he says.

So could it happen in Ireland? There’s a reserved ‘yes’ from Gerry Mellett, president of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI): “The pub trade in the UK is going through a tough time at present, much like our own trade in Ireland in many places, and schemes and initiatives like this are a clear indication that the plight of the rural pub is being taken seriously,” he says.

The situation for pubs in Ireland is not positive, says Mellet. “We want our pubs to remain open and the battle we face in Ireland is trying to make the Government realise that with a pub a day on average closing, and the associated job losses, we also need to see them taking a lead role in our survival.

“Research released by the VFI during the summer found that sales were down 13% in 2010, and it is also estimated by Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) that 7,000 jobs were lost in 2010 in the pub sector,” he says. “Pub closures have inhibited social lives, and have disrupted the community spirit and life of many neighbourhoods.”