25-Feb-2007 The Big Issue - Community Spirit
Thought multi-tasking was only for busy mums and hectic office managers? Kelly Salter finds out about the village pubs who are avoiding the trend in mass closure by offering extra services in the local community
You've probably driven past one, taken a bus through another or you might even live somewhere like it. The permanently shut-up shop, with yellowing flyers in the window and dirt on the sills. The Victorian-era house with high windows which hint of its former life as a school. Unfortunately a forlorn village is a familiar picture.
But if the heartbeat of many UK villages has been getting faint, it seems one institution - the local pub - holds a firm grasp. Or does it? The Campaign For Real Ale estimates 60 per cent of villages are now without a pub, and while some locals might not mourn the passing of an alcoholic watering hole, others are keen to prove it has more to offer the community than pints and fights - and that it's worth saving. But deliverance hasn't arrived in karaoke nights or extra bingo. Surprisingly it's fellow establishments, the Post Office and the Church.
When Pontrhydf endigaid's post office needed new premises two and half years ago, local publican Giles Polglase grabbed a rare opportunity and offered one of his outbuildings at the Black Lion Hotel.
The mid-Wales village, which is 15 miles from Aberystwyth, has several shops and a village school. Polglase says it was vital to retain the service, which is open six days a week - and that it has added an extra dimension to his business: "It encourages people to come down and have a coffee. I survive because of our bed and breakfast, not because of drinking sales. If I was running as a boozer I would close."
But he adds that financial reasons weren't the only incentive "There's no financial gain for me having it here, in terms of the rent, because it is cheap, but it's a community centre - in a rural area, a post office is someone's contact with the Government. If there's any problems, Ian gives them advice and finds a solution for them."
Ian Davies is the subpostmaster and has been at the helm since the post office was at its previous location in a village shop. "I organise a social lunch open to any customers in the pub, and we sometimes do trips," he says. "It's bringing people together. Pubs seem to last longer than shops - you can go to a supermarket for food, but you can't do the same with a pub. I do it because I like to walk to work, and want to work in the same community in which I live."
The Wheatsheaf in Crudwell near Malmesbury snapped up a similar opportunity and now has a post office that really is in the hub of the pub. "It was a rather desperate situation," says Toby Gregory who runs the pub with his wife Debbie. "The shop was closing down and there was no one coming forward to offer an alternative. We had a room that was just used for evening functions and meetings, so we offered that. As the post office is open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we can use the room at the time of the week when it is traditionally busy. We rearrange the furniture. At lunchtime customers will often wait until it is reopened so they can use it. We are really happy that it's here."
It sounds like a win-win situation, and according to John Longden, head campaigner of Pub Is The Hub, [PITH], using the pub as a community focal point has many advantages. Formed through the Rural Action Programme Of Business In The Community in 2001, with HRH The Prince Of Wales as its patron, PITH encourages communties, breweries and businesses to look at sustainable ways of keeping their local pub open. The charity has already supported over 300 schemes which has seen pubs offer extra services to their communties, such as post offices.
"As a licensee they [publicans] are entwined with the local community," says Longden. "We look at providing services that are otherwise closing. These days pubs have much more flexible opening hours - whereas small post offices may only be open several hours a week. When attached to a pub they do not make a fortune, but they can offer flexibility, by employing part time staff, who can work in the bar when not in the post office. They will also share overheads - this makes it more viable."
But would you want to stroll past the bar every time you wanted to send a parcel or order foreign currency? Keith Richards, a senior executive at the National Federation of Subpostmasters, believes most customers will be supportive: "People with strong religious or political beliefs may be put off going into a pub to use the service, but that's the only downside I can see to it. As long as the community is being serviced, they use it and it's convenient, I can't see a problem. These outreaches are still going to be staffed by professional, trained people."
Richards, who also runs Glynneath post office in south Wales, adds that being able to access cash in a village is vital. "The bottom line is that if people have to go outside their local community to collect their money, then they are going to spend it outside the community as well. And that will see a demise of other local businesses and shops. In some small villages it could be the saviour of the pub and post office. They complement each other."
Giles Polglase has recognised this benefit at the Black Lion in rural mid-Wales, where there are several village businesses which need local custom: "Customers can use their bank cards to get cash out from the post office, and don't have to make a big trip just to get their money out. I would lose out if people needed to go to Aberystwyth"
However, the rural location has added another dimension to Crudwell's pub and post office combination. As well as increased passing trade, and the initial novelty of the pub's new service, post office manager Jane Theyers reports that trust has come to the fore. "With all the identity fraud at the moment, people prefer to come in here and withdraw their money from my machine, as people feel a bit safer knowing someone isn't watching out for their pin over their shoulder. And it's not just the older customers who feel like this. That's another advantage."
And this pub-and-post relationship isn't exclusive, as church-goers in north Wales recently discovered, when their usual place of worship was temporarily closed for refurbishment. The congregation of Christ Church in Bala now meets twice a week at the town's White Lion Hotel, which is managed by Barry Hughes. "We've always had a good relationship with the local church and it has actually increased our trade. The people who come really love that they can sit down, have a chat and a coffee."
He adds that it's far from an incongruous relationship: "Because of the way we are set up, the bar is away from the conference room [where communion is held] on the other side of the hotel, so they have the choice of where they go afterwards.
"You have to do a bit more these days to keep pubs going, and not everybody wants to come in for a pint. We have to cater for everyone."
And this ethos points to a sustainable strategy, as long as the community uses these multi-tasking pubs, says John Longden, of PITH: "Half the time we have to say a project is not sustainable. A difficulty in a rural area is that when a building closes, normally it closes for good. It very rarely opens again and that service is lost forever. In an urban area, it will often reopen in another context. And you have to look at all the knock on issues, if you take one thing out you find that two other businesses have collapsed."
Longden's concern hasn't gone unnoticed, and the first week of February saw the Welsh Assembly award PITH a £16,500 research grant to investigate the possibilities of an increased number of pubs offering extra services in rural communities.
"We need to take a ground-up approach if it is going to work, and the support from breweries in Wales has been outstanding," says Longden on the study, which runs as the Welsh Rural Pub Strategy To Support Rural Services project. "There is a huge interest in trying to save rural services. I live in a small village with no facilities, and that's what drives me."
For more information see www.pubisthehub.org.uk or www.camra.org.uk
community spirit.pdf