09-June-2007 Yorkshire Post - Here's to keeping the rural pub alive
RURAL services are collapsing all around the countryside. Villages are losing post offices, churches, shops and pubs at an alarming rate, and recent figures show that pubs are closing their doors for the last time at the rate of three every week in England.
Pointing fingers as to who is to blame is one thing, doing something about it and acting positively is quite another. Five years ago Prince Charles, at the time the President of Business in the Community, uttered the phrase that "the pub could be much more the hub" of a community and, from that chance remark, a new organisation was born.
While Prince Charles remains heavily involved in what is now known simply as "Pub is the Hub" it is a Yorkshireman who has run the initiative since its inception and now carries the title of campaign director. John Longden, who lives in Nidd, has worked for a number of breweries over the years, including Sam Smith's, Websters, Greenalls and Bass.
His experience is largely in the area of both property and management, having at one time been responsible for thousands of pubs.
"I first met the Prince of Wales when he came to visit the Maltings we had restored and the museum we had created at Webster's in Halifax. I took him on a conducted tour and I think that's when I was probably seen as a northern contact.
"He was, and always has been, concerned about the decline in rural services and when I told him the figures as to how many rural pubs were closing every week he was very concerned and formed a small working party that I was invited to join."
The romantic image of a pastoral England is that most villages, even really small ones, have a pub, church, post office and shop, but what has happened with great pace since the late 1990s has been a massive erosion of rural services, with absolutely no assistance given by the Government.
"Early this century (2000s) rural communities found that 70 per cent of them no longer had a shop or post office and 60 per cent no longer had a pub," says John.
The idea of Pub is the Hub was to say, if a village's last remaining trading unit is a pub, can it share overheads and staff resources?
"It's true that you need a special kind of licensee to make any Pub is the Hub initiative work, and often the additional service you might add on to the pub might not make you a huge profit.
"What we provide is the encouragement, based on years of experience, and project management advice for free, but we don't provide the capital for the project."
John is aware that trying to add a service for the sake of it is not right either.
"Opportunity has to be there. It costs money to convert a room into a shop and unless you can see a return you are unlikely to go ahead.
"We turn down 50 per cent of the projects we see, either because of the licensee or the property being in the wrong location for what is being proposed. We certainly won't encourage someone if they're only going to sell a couple of pints of milk and a sliced loaf."
Nonetheless, the Pub is the Hub initiative has already assisted more than 300 projects throughout the country - and considering that John is pretty much the only main player in it, linking various organisations and businesses, that is outstanding work. He has been involved in opening over 100 post offices and over 80 shops from pub premises in the first five years of Pub is the Hub.
Yorkshire has proved a tougher nut to crack in terms of uptake but there have been some successes.
"In Yorkshire we have been involved in about a dozen projects, mainly with post offices. Yorkshire has been a harder area to get going because it has been more difficult to get capital available.
"If you're a licensee and you're prepared to put in the hours to convert a room into a shop and give it a go, you need a bit of support with the building and fitting it out. That's why we say to the local authorities that because they are saving on people having to travel around elsewhere and giving people access to services such as a post office, that money should be put back into the community from councils or wherever to help.
"Sometimes it's an easy message to get across. The likes of East Midlands Development Agency and Cumbria County Council have actually come forward and been prepared to allocate some capital. Yorkshire Forward, through Andy Tordoff, have not dragged their heels either. So there are monies available for rural pubs in Yorkshire to add on shop and post office businesses."
The village pub is still very much under threat and, while it is often seen as a wonderful place to visit and sit outside in the summertime, that is not enough to keep it going.
John knows this only too well. "The pattern of trading has changed from 25 years ago when there was a bigger and more settled community in rural areas who typically used the pub more frequently These days, rural pubs seem to have either famine or feast and life is much more challenging for them, but ultimately the business can be incredibly rewarding because successful pubs act like magnets for the whole community"
With today's rural property prices spiralling, and pubs usually being the cheapest property to buy in a village, there is always the danger that opportunist investors will buy just to close the pub and turn it into a residential property. It happens all the time and John is well aware of it. "There is always the incentive to buy it and run it down. Equally, there are a lot of pubs around that are just not suitable for today's trading age. They've either been overdeveloped or are in the wrong style.
"What we are saying is that if you have a reasonably successful pub, think of diversifying and providing other services. That way you can increase your turnover and your profitability"
John has seen enough projects to have a feel for what is going to work and what isn't. "Sometimes you find that the village community itself is not that bothered. Really they have got to want it as well as you and what I look for is both sides coming together.
"Of course, if you really do care about your local pub you could form yourself into a co-operative and buy the pub yourselves and run it - 18 have done that so far. The best example I have is the Old Crown in Hesket Newmarket (Cumbria).
"There 100 of the villagers clubbed together to form a not for profit co-operative and bought the pub. They also had a little brewery at the back and had been concerned about losing it so 40 of them helped save that - and that was from a village of just 250.
"They are now looking at buying the post office and shop that is about to close as well."
THEAKSTON'S BEST WISHES
Simon Theakston, executive director of Theakston's in Masham and a volunteer worker for Pub is the Hub, says: "The massive wave of legislation over new rules and requirements placed on licensees has taken them to a point where the whole question of running a pub becomes a real challenge. Where we come in with Pub is the Hub is to help the licensee improve his business in the pub.
" Largely, that is making sure the beer he buys is perfect quality, that he knows how to run his cellar properly and that support is given promotionally, but we are also supportive over new ideas. One of the ideas we are presently working on with Pub is the Hub is to try and organise funding for licensees in suitable areas to develop such ideas as mountain bike liveries.
"North Yorkshire is particularly attractive to mountain bike riders and we are hoping that by providing room for bikes, showers and accommodation we can perhaps get them to stop overnight, enjoy the pub and come back and stay again and again."
PSP PRINT.Here s to keeping the rural pub alive.pdf