Just one weekend after launching a community share offer to bid to buy the last pub in Pant, over £25,000 has been invested by local people.
Following in the steps of many other communities that have faced losing a well-loved village pub, the community has banded together to try and raise the money to make an offer to pub chain, Admiral Taverns, to buy the freehold of the Cross Guns pub.
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The villagers have about a month to raise around £300,000 to make a bid for the pub and have created a community business to allow people to invest and buy a share of the property.
The Community Benefit Society that they have formed is a type of co-operative which will allow everyone who invests to become a part-owner of the business and ultimately decide how it is run.
According to the business plan, the Cross Guns will aim to provide an inclusive, welcoming café during the day with a more traditional country-pub vibe at night.
As a community enterprise, the Cross Guns will be owned, managed and ultimately controlled by local people who use the Cross Guns rather than a national pub chain.
According to the group behind the bid, this is the most likely way of securing the future of the pub and creating a community hub for the village.
Said Sarah, a local resident and one of the directors of the group: “Over the years, our village pub has had a number of owners and managers who have operated the pub but perhaps not served the needs of the local community as well as we would have liked them to. In recent years, the owners of the building haven’t had the returns from the business to invest in it to the level we think is necessary. Our priority will be to create a community hub local people can be proud of.”
The current fundraising target is £348,000 and the group says that one of its top priorities if they can buy the pub is to invest in improved toilets, including disabled facilities. As an Asset of Community Value listed with Shropshire Council, the Cross Guns can currently only be sold to a community business. After April however, the vendors can sell to anyone else, so the community is being urged to make their investment as soon as possible to show that they want to bid for the pub. If the bid is unsuccessful, investors will receive their investments back.
Sarah added: “If the community doesn’t buy the Cross Guns, we won’t be able to control what happens on the plot. Given the current environment for the hospitality sector, it’s possible that a developer will offer to buy the property and try to get planning permission for an alternative use. Worst case scenario, it stands empty for years, like the Four Crosses pub just down the road.”
Anyone interested in investing or finding out more can visit the website www.crossguns.org.uk/investors to read the share prospectus and see the vision for the Cross Guns.