A Tale of Two Signs

Pub signs rescued from
The Railway Hotel and The Harvest Home.

The importance of protecting what we have – in this case the Public House.

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Clearing out some pics I found this – taken when these Whitchurch pub signs were centre stage in a demo at Parliament a few years back.

Pubs lost to developers

These two Whitchurch pubs were lost without any opportunity for local residents to try and save them. Both the Railway and the Harvest Home were sold behind closed doors by their large remote PubCo owners taking advantage of a complicit planning system.
Local people held public meetings, lobbied councillors, planners, the MP, appeared on TV and radio and held on-site demos waving banners – all to no avail.
Housing is now on the two sites and the town has lost two social amenities.

Since then the law has changed and the introduction of the Asset of Community Value (ACV) is one tool added to the armoury of those who seek to keep local amenities, whether they be shops, a post office, halls or public houses.

A case in point...

Today IF an ACV is in place, local people can at least now have the opportunity to put in a bid to purchase, as is currently happening with the Red House in Whitchurch. Such community bids have to be considered by the seller within a legally enforced timeframe. Maybe the Red House team will succeed, maybe they won’t, but at least they now have the chance to have a go – and a gutsy one it is too, their commitment deserving much support.

But have lessons been learned? How many pubs have ACVs in place? What work could be done to improve the registration of such important assets? Could those who believe in the importance of our public houses, breweries and pub culture help? I believe that they could, by proactively working with the communities that value their local amenities. Be in touch if you want pointers.

It is interesting what passions and rants finding an old picture can raise. :-)