Another Successful Pub Campaign

As Save The Red Lion Campaign continues to develop its business plan for a future Red Lion business and works out how much funding it will need to raise, we keep an eye on what other pub campaign groups are up to, and often take heart from their endeavours.

Our trusty Publican’s Morning Advertiser has just carried a story “Northampton residents raise £100,000 to save local pub”. The Charwelton Community Pub and Shop Co-operative is looking to raise £147,000 and within three weeks had managed to raise the substantial sum of £100,000. That’s no mean effort!

This story is yet another example of how a local community has come together to raise money to save their pub. Save The Red Lion Campaign expects to be treading a similar path, probably early next year.

The Publican’s Morning Advertiser story can be read at - http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/General-News/Northampton-residents-raise-100-000-to-save-local-pub

Campaign Newsletter Delivery Across Sidbury

Over the weekend members of Save The Red Lion Campaign started the task of delivering a newsletter to properties across Sidbury. The newsletter updates residents on the progress of the Campaign & its next important steps.

The newsletter also invites residents to complete & return a questionnaire which seeks their views about what sort of uses the Red Lion could be put to as a community pub. Residents are also invited to register their interest in potentially becoming shareholders in a future Red Lion business.

Deliveries of the newsletter will continue during the week.

Copies of the newsletter, along with the future pub questionnaire & the share interst form can all be downloaded at –

http://sites.google.com/site/thepubinthevillage/Oct2013SaveTheRedLionDearResidentLtr.docx.doc

http://sites.google.com/site/thepubinthevillage/SaveTheRedLionPublicQuestionnnaireFinal2.doc

http://sites.google.com/site/thepubinthevillage/SaveTheRedLionShareInterestForm.doc

Campaign Success Hits The Front Page!

Save The Red Lion Campaign hits the front page! Today’s edition of Pulman’s View from Sidmouth has, as its lead story on its front page, a report of the Campaign receiving its significant grant funding.

Under the heading “Pub campaign moves up a gear thanks to 10k government grant” it reports on the campaign’s latest success.

The story can be accessed at –

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?pbid=b553c14a-f023-4ec6-a5ac-b9d745b0d550

Campaign Blog Reaches 6,000 Hits!

Thank you to everyone who has visited this site since we set it up earlier this year.

As the blog reached the point where we had received 6,000 hits today this is a snapshot of the data behind that number -

Pageviews today 22 Pageviews yesterday 31 Pageviews last month 959 Pageviews all time history 6,000

Pageviews by Browsers

Entry Pageviews Internet Explorer 80 (41%) Firefox 41 (21%) Chrome 38 (19%) Safari 19 (9%) Mobile 6 (3%) Mobile Safari 6 (3%) Opera 3 (1%) BingPreview 1 (<1%) CriOS 1 (<1

Pageviews by Operating Systems

Entry Pageviews Windows 129 (66%) Macintosh 20 (10%) Android 13 (6%) iPhone 12 (6%) iPad 11 (5%) Linux 10 (5%)

Pageviews by Countries

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	4041
United States	922
Russia	283
Greece	53
China	49
Germany	46
Ireland	46
Netherlands	35
Ukraine	31
Serbia	30

Campaign Passes Second Significant Milestone - Receives Funding Grant

Save The Red Lion Campaign has now past its second significant milestone! It has now been awarded a £10,000 grant from a government body which it will use to undertake the next set of important work that it needs to do in order to move towards making an offer for the Red Lion and completing its business plan for a future Red Lion business.

In preparation for making an offer to buy the Red Lion the Campaign has been working on developing a viable business plan. Until now the Campaign has been restricted in what progress it can make in detailing its business plan as it has yet to find out how much it believes the pub is actually worth, and how much it would cost to repair and upgrade the building. These are key pieces of financial information that the Campaign now requires.

The Campaign is pleased to announce that it can now progress to having the pub professionally surveyed and valued. It can now undertake this important set of activities as it has successfully applied for, and had approved, a pre-feasibility grant of £10,000 from the government funded Social Investment Board.

The approval of this grant is a significant second milestone for the Campaign, following on from it having successfully persuaded East Devon District Council to list the Red Lion as an Asset of Community Value.

The grant, will allow the Campaign to undertake pre-feasibility work in order to engage professional advisers to, amongst other things –

Ø  have the pub valued.

Ø  obtain a full building condition survey, including undertaking technical due diligence.

Ø  cost the work required to repair and upgrade the pub.

Ø  register an Industrial & Provident Society limited company to purchase and own the pub.

The Campaign is anticipating that within the next fortnight it will obtain registration from the Financial Conduct Authority of its Industrial & Provident Society limited company.

Fred Burnett, Chair of Save The Red Lion Campaign, said “Receiving this significant grant from the government’s Social Investment Board comes just at the right time for the Campaign. We have recently opened up a dialogue with the pub’s owner, Punch Taverns, and work is progressing well on developing a business plan for a future Red Lion business. However, to complete this, the Campaign needs to know what the pub is realistically worth, as opposed to what the owner wants for it, as well as how much money would need to be spent on repairing and upgrading the building.

The Campaign has received the maximum pre-feasibility grant that the Social Investment Board can award which I believe demonstrates the strength of the case that the Campaign made for this sizeable financial support. We can now move our work up a gear or two”.

The next couple of months will see the Campaign fully understanding what the financial outlook for a future Red Lion business will look like.

Sidmouth Herald's Latest Campaign Article

Last Friday’s Sidmouth Herald’s latest reporting of the Campaign (page 10) in its 25 October edition can be accessed at –

http://sites.google.com/site/thepubinthevillage/25.10.13SidmouthHeraldArticle.pdf

Celebrating A CAMRA Campaign Success

Thanks to the CAMRA website for this story that has an impact on all pubs -

CAMRA officially launched new celebration material at a popular parliamentary pub event last week that thanked MPs and Ministers who made a difference by the scrapping of the beer duty escalator. 

The celebration, which took place in the Red Lion pub, attracted over 40 people including Ministers Sajid Javid, Brandon Lewis, Eric Pickles, and CAMRA directors who fought against what MP Andrew Griffiths claims was “the hated beer duty escalator”.

The beer tax campaign headed by CAMRA aimed to abolish the beer duty escalator which would push tax up by 2 percent.

At this year’s budget, the Chancellor axed the plans and announced a 1p cut in beer duty, the first time beer duty has been cut since 1959.

Jackie Parker, a CAMRA Director, described the campaign as “a fight to save our great British pint”.

Campaigning included gaining 109,100 signatures to reach the necessary figure for a Parliamentary debate, and volunteers who joined at CAMRA’s first mass lobby condemning the beer duty escalator.

Jackie took the opportunity to thank the MPs “for the very positive way in which they engaged with and supported the campaign.

“We should all be very proud of our collective achievement”, she added. The efforts of those involved were also echoed by Chief Executive Mike Benner and MP Andrew Griffiths who stated that: “We should not underestimate what we achieved in scrapping that beer duty escalator. We should pay thanks to organisations such as SIBA and the British Beer and Pub Association that worked so hard in delivering this.

"We should thank all Members of Parliament across all sides of the house who worked together unified because they recognised the damage the beer duty escalator was having on pubs and brewers in their constituencies." 

Mike concluded that: “This is a win-win situation for everyone.

"We did it and we made a difference". 

The celebratory event which allowed MPs, Ministers, and members of CAMRA to enjoy their efforts to scrap the beer duty escalator also kick-started further plans ahead of next year’s budget to ensure the government continue to support local pubs through freezing beer duty.