Sale of the Star Inn – Community Pub survey
As you may know, the Star Inn has been up for sale for a while and a group of us have started thinking about whether the community buying the pub might be a possibility. We want to know what other people in the village think of this idea and also to let you know what we’ve done so far to keep this option open.
We’ve had some initial advice from the Plunkett Foundation, a charitable trust which supports local communities who want to own their local pub as a community business (including in Rudston very recently). A condition of further support is that we have the pub listed as an ‘Asset of Community Value’ (ACV) so we have applied to do this with East Riding of Yorkshire Council. An ACV means that if the owners want to sell the asset, then the local authority gives the community up to six months to raise the funds to put in an offer before it can be sold. However, to be clear, this doesn’t mean the owners have to sell it to the community – or sell it at all – if they don’t want to.
There are now many successful community pubs around the country. They are a great way to ensure stable long-term ownership, and to provide a hub for local services. We’d be able to appoint a manager or lease it out, but as owners we’d all get a say in how we want it to be run and be able to make sure it continued to meet the needs of the whole village.
Of course, to buy the pub we’d need to raise enough money: usually this is through a mixture of grants, loans and the sale of community shares. But first we need to know if there is wider interest.
You can: fill in the survey on line; return a printed copy (download it here: Village community pub survey) to the post box at the village hall, or, if neither of these work for you, you can give your answers over the phone by ringing 07858 262458. You can respond to this questionnaire anonymously or give your name if you want to. If there is more than one person in your household who wants to fill in a paper questionnaire, there are spares in the village hall.
Best wishes from your neighbours:
Lisa Gough; Steve Gough; Ian Sainty; Ray Williams; Kevin Ellis; Richard Heatley; Suzanne Markwell; Kerry Armstrong; Paul Armstrong; Claire Clayphan; Paul Clayphan; Ava Monroe; John Walker; Angie Ndow; Fay Longoni; Zena Scott; Chris Wade; Christian Mackintosh; Rupert Harrison; Sara Scott; Di McNeish; Louise Robinson; Mike Jones; David Wilkinson, John Ogden; Judy Lovell; Jed Hitchin; Pauline Hitchin,; Alex Vipond; Billy Worswick