There will be two meetings in February to encourage rural licensees in Gwynedd and Ceredigion to come forward and chat with Pub is The Hub about potential schemes at their pub and learn more about how we can help with advice and funding. The details are as follows:
- Tuesday 19th February at The Goat Inn, Glandwyfach, Garndolbenmaen, Gwynedd from 10.30am to 12.30pm – Gwynedd county has 32.8% of the rural population of Wales so rural services are key to its communities.
- Wednesday 20th February at the Feathers Royal, Alban Square, Aberaeron from 10.30am to 12.30pm for pubs in Ceredigion – again, 80% of the total population in Ceredigion is categorised as rural so maintaining rural services is a real priority for tourism and economic growth.
It’s free to attend and guests will also be invited to stay for a buffet lunch and a chat. Letters are being sent out this week to pubs in Gwynedd and Ceredigion inviting them to the meetings but licensees can also call the office on 01423 546165 to book their places.
Less than 12 months now remain to access funding from a package of support for local services in rural pubs in Wales through the joint co-operation initiative announced in March 2012.
Managed by Cadwyn Clywd on behalf of the Welsh Assembly with support provided by The Prince’s Countryside Fund, the project aims to engage with over 90 pubs, with financial support for around 60 that choose to diversify into new services for their communities across eight rural counties; Bridgend, Vale of Glamorgan, Ceredigion, Gwynedd, Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire.
Nine months into the co-operation project, the response has been encouraging. 52 pubs have expressed an interest in diversification with 38 having more than one visit to discuss ideas. This has led to a further 24 considering making applications for funding with eight actually made: Two have been in the Vale of Glamorgan, five in Denbighshire and one in Bridgend. In addition there have been two workshops held in the Vale of Glamorgan and Flintshire for 12 licensees and two more are planned with Gwynedd and Ceredigion in February. In the last few months pubs have launched village shops, a community playground and a pub heritage centre.
Malcolm Harrison, Director for Pub is The Hub commented: “Whilst we’ve made great progress so far we still need pubs to come forward to take advantage of the funding window and this closes at the end of next summer. Great opportunities like this don’t come along very often for pubs so it would be a shame for anyone to miss out.”