Campaign could blaze a trail in East Devon!

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is running a campaign to put 300 pubs on to local authority lists as "assets of community value". The Community Pubs Minister, Brandon Lewis, is supporting CAMRA's campaign and the listing of the Red Lion as an "asset of community value" will need to be a consideration for a campaign to retain the Red Lion as the pub in the heart of the village.

The Red Lion, like the other pubs that CAMRA wants to see listed as part of its campaign, can be determined by the local authority (East Devon District Council) as an "asset of community value" under the Community Right to Bid legislation.  By doing so, this would allow a community/campaign group to be able to put the sale of the pub on hold whilst it looked to put together a viable businesss plan and try to secure funding to buy and successfully run the pub. If this were to happen the community/campaign group has 6 months to bring about the purchase of the pub. Therefore, it is best to leave it until the last possible minute to seek listing, as this buys the maximum amount of time to seek to secure funding.

This approach has the support not only of CAMRA, but also the Community Pubs Minister, who, following the listing of the Ivy House pub in Nunhead that led to the recent succcessful community purchase of it, said "The Community Right to Bid has saved its first ever pub - the Ivy House. We (the government) are determined to see more communities across the country follow in the Ivy House's footseps so we are working with CAMRA to encourage people to list their local as a way to safeguard the future of their favourite pub using community right".

The Minister also said that the government had "..extended the tax breaks for small firms like community pubs for another tax year". For more detail on what the minister said recently on these matters -

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/General-News/Community-Pubs-Month-Pubs-minister-Brandon-Lewis-calls-on-punters-to-back-CAMRA-List-your-Local-campaign

As part of CAMRA's campaign to get 300 pubs listed its Chief Executive, Mike Benner, recently said "This (listing as an "asset of community value") is a massive step forward in the battle to protect pubs." For more detail on CAMRA's campaign to list 300 pubs as "assets of community value" -

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/General-News/CAMRA-aims-to-put-300-pubs-on-list-to-prove-they-are-a-community-asset

It is very clear from all of this that there is support from govenmrnt for local communities/campaign groups to keep their local pubs where they can. Hopefully, local MP, Hugo Swire, will support any campaign that seeks to list the Red Lion as an "asset of the community" as the campaign would merely be following the encouragement of the government in their actions. It may well be that Hugo Swire will receive a knock on his door along with a request to lend his weight behind a local campaign. If the Red Lion was listed by East Devon District Council then it would be the first business in the area to receive such a listing. A trail could be blazed in Sidbury!

Should no potential owner(s) emerge with a plan to run the Red Lion as the pub in the heart of the village, then we could well see it being listed as an "asset of community value". This was discussed at the open meeting on 19 May where the requisite 21 electors signed to allow the Campaign to seek to get the pub listed should that be deemed necessary at any point.