Update from the Steering Committee and details of Proposals - 30/07/25
Thank you all for your interest in saving the pub, and sorry that we don’t get to chat to you in person at tonight’s meeting.
We’ve been asked a number of questions and figured it was better to give everyone the full picture so we’ve put this brief pack together to cover as many answers as we can.
How is the fund raising going for setup and valuation?
Including the entry fees for the forthcoming quiz and the revenue from the Saturday lunchtime opening, our total fund raise stands at around £550, which is the Plunkett fees covered, some minor marketing and setup costs, and around 20% of the valuation fee (our total estimated setup/valuation costs are £3000-3500). We are extremely grateful for the support of all those who have organised and/or attended fund raising efforts. We have a total of 17 people as at the current date who are prepared to offer us short term loans to bridge the fund raising. Due to the delays opening the Community Benefit Society (see further questions below) we do not currently have a dual-signature bank account to properly account for these funds and therefore cannot in good conscience accept them until this situation is resolved. We’ve also kindly been offered a fund raising gig at the pub by the Larks (on Thursday 31st August) and another band well known to the pub are currently considering a similar offering. Anna and Amanda have also kindly agreed to setup a gazebo at the Sweffling Fete to raise awareness.
What’s happening with the Community Benefit Society/Setup
The lack of a willing volunteer to fulfil one of the mandatory officer roles has unfortunately cost us two months of valuable time. We are exceptionally grateful that Fraser Whitehead has stepped up in the last week or so and his wealth of legal knowledge is a wonderful addition to the teams skills. We are now proceeding to re-review all the CBS information and to get Fraser up to speed as to where we are. In the meantime, now that we have a full set of officers we are working at pace to form an unaffiliated club/society so that we can open a bank account and formally conduct fundraising activities to tide us over until the CBS is properly assessed and then formed, with the view that this club/society could be turned over for other community use or closed once the CBS is formed.
What is for sale, and what is the asking price?
While the owners do currently own both the pub (and all associated buildings) and the campsite, we feel the addition of the campsite is too much of a stretch for a community fund raise at this time, and therefore our interest is primarily in the pub and buildings. The market price for the pub and buildings is in the region of £695k and this has been valued by three different agents for the current owners. While we await a full Red Book valuation we have sounded out some local professionals and general consensus is that asking price is in the right ballpark, the sale includes the following:
- Pub, including kitchen, tap room, toilets etc
- Badger Cottage – Charming holiday let consisting of 1 Double and 1 Twin bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom. This has been a successful holiday let and has the potential for this to continue as is or to be re-purposed to be let long term.
- 2 Self-contained flats each with Living Room, Bedroom, Shower Room and Kitchen – whilst these have not been recently let, they could easily be ready for short or long-term let with some decorative work, new white goods and potentially some minor plumbing
- 1 Bed flat currently used as Owners Accommodation – A flat that occupies the footprint of the main pub buildings, consisting of large living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. This could be utilised for live-in staff/manager or re-purposed for short or long term let subject to redecoration and changes to the access arrangements (such as new locks on doors in pub entrance hall or a reconfiguration of doors).
- Car park – approximately ¾ of existing car park footprint, comprising of all bays between Badger Cottage and the left hand side of the gate to campsite. Remaining spaces to be retained for campsite.
What’s the business plan?
We’ve received full accounts from the owners, and aside from the Covid recovery years the pub does a respectable trade on wet sales alone, bolstered by the very popular events held throughout the year which we see no reason not to continue. There is also scope to adjust the opening hours and the menu to cater for more people. Due to the limited size and layout of the kitchen, we can’t currently see a way to turn the pub into a restaurant without significant and expensive redevelopment. With limited seating available inside the pub, and the staggering costs of staffing a restaurant in the current market we feel that trying to pivot to a restaurant would not only significantly increase overheads but also probably remove the character of the pub for which it is so well loved. The key source of stable revenue we’ve identified is the property, there is currently a significant demand for rental property due to the increased need for labour in the area and this is going to be steady for the next 15 or so years. The flats can either be let long-term to those displaced by the major building project, or run as short-term serviced lets for workers. There are grants available for improvement of buildings used to house local workers, and if run as serviced lets, there are enhanced rates available. As such, rental for each flat is likely to be £600-1500pcm depending on the model chosen. In addition, estimated revenue for the cottage if continued as a holiday let and well marketed is somewhere in the region of £20,000 a year. Having a decent occupancy of all properties is also likely to benefit the wet trade in the pub. Therefore, if run correctly, the property revenue alone should cover the pub overheads and potentially the costs of a live in manager should we chose to staff in this manner.
How are the pledges going?
At the point of writing, we’ve received indications of approximately £90,000 (some given verbally) from just shy of 50 pledges. While we still clearly have some work to do, we’re extraordinarily grateful that in a very short period of time we’ve managed to collect such a significant response, and are reasonably confident that as those pledges have predominantly been respectable sums that with a proper co-ordinated marketing effort once solid business plans and share prospectuses are in place that we should be able to get somewhere close to the current market value. What about the deadline? It’s been clearly communicated that all other offers for the pub have fallen through, so if we cannot submit a concrete proposal by the 31st August the pub will be scheduled for auction on 22nd October. Due to the hold-ups caused by the lack of a volunteer for the key officer position we are not confident we can get the CBS setup and a full purchase share scheme arranged in this very short timeframe. With this in mind, we have worked collectively with the owners to consider other options, and subject to a proper proposal and suitable legal framework, they would consider a fixed-term Lease-to-buy arrangement of ideally 6, but at a stretch 12 months. They have also very graciously agreed that (subject to a suitable legal agreement) if, at the end of this term, our bid has fallen through, to return any funds spent on renovation from any subsequent sale. Again, this is subject to a suitable legal framework being put in place. This would be our preferred option if it has the backing of the community, assuming the correct financial model can be put in place, as this would give us time to complete a proper fundraise and assess how best to run the pub. Alternatively, we could consider putting in a bid at the auction on the 22nd October, but this does inherently carry a significant level of risk.
Your Communications need improvement
Yes they do, we’ve again been searching for months for someone to step into the role of communications manager to stay on top of incoming emails and to manage drafting and scheduling the mailing list so that the officers can devote their limited time to the significant amount of legal and fund raising work required. This should only require handful of hours a week and can be done remotely. We are also looking for:
Someone to organise meetings and take minutes, we’d like to thank Laura Gwynne very much for her efforts up to now, she has now left the team to pursue other commitments.
Someone to run the marketing campaign across mailing list, website and social media once the share prospectus is together
If you think you have the aptitude and capacity for any of these roles, please email