Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
for an Asset of Community Value application with the help<br />
of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council. ACV’s are<br />
part of the localism act as legislated for in 2011, whereby<br />
a local community group, which is not incorporated,<br />
applies to have a building listed as an ACV by their local<br />
authority. If accepted, then the building is placed on the<br />
ACV list for up to six years. If the current owners decide<br />
to sell the building, the group which puts in the ACV has<br />
an opportunity to buy the property; it does not, however<br />
(unlike in Scotland), mean they have a right to buy it.<br />
The Rushton Spencer Group was successful in their ACV<br />
bid but now had to make a decision as to the way forward.<br />
They needed to come up with a business plan: so, after<br />
finding out how much the brewery wanted for the pub, they<br />
presented them with said plan. In 2013, the pub was put<br />
up for sale. Marston’s wanted about £200,000 plus VAT to<br />
sell the pub to the group. Sandra said they sought help off<br />
the Co-operative Bank to see if they were prepared to give<br />
them financial support and, based on their business plan,<br />
the bank was prepared to loan them the money that was<br />
needed. They had decided to go down the co-operative<br />
(CIC) route as this would guarantee that they could issue<br />
shares out to people, mostly from the local area, at about<br />
£50 a share, the minimum amount being £250. They<br />
needed to get at least 100 people investing in the CIC,<br />
but eventually got over 160 shareholders. Having raised<br />
the capital required and after further negotiations with<br />
Marston’s, they were able to buy the Royal Oak from the<br />
brewery in March 2015.<br />
Sandra said it had been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for all<br />
of the group. Marston’s were not prepared to give them<br />
trading figures for the pub, so they had to make a few<br />
guesstimates for the value of the building and how much<br />
it would cost in terms of running costs per annum and<br />
installing a licensee and paying them a decent income.<br />
Sandra mentioned that the CIC name for The Royal Oak<br />
cannot include royal in its title, as business law does not<br />
allow you to use the name without the express permission<br />
of the crown, hence the name of the CIC: Rushton Oak<br />
Ltd excludes the “Royal” for that reason.<br />
A lot of the work on the pub has been carried out by<br />
tradesmen at cost or been done voluntarily. This has<br />
helped them to keep the costs down to a minimum.<br />
More work still needs to be done which will see other<br />
improvements to the pub, without ruining its overall<br />
character, including having a milk collection point on the<br />
car park as a proposal by a local dairy partner. Most of the<br />
beers are locally sourced from breweries such as nearby<br />
Wincle and Storm, as well as most ingredients for the<br />
food, where practical.<br />
Towards the end of June, they celebrated The Royal Oak<br />
being in the ownership of the local community for over<br />
a year and no doubt there will be exciting developments<br />
to happen in the next few months for Staffordshire’s first,<br />
and hopefully not last, co-operatively run pub.<br />
Anyone wishing to join should contact Mr. Williams:<br />
Telephone: 01782 862606<br />
Email: ppippit@yahoo.co.uk<br />
Potteries Pub Preservation Group Meetings<br />
(8pm start):<br />
Wednesday, 21 st September: The Holy Inadequate,<br />
Etruria Old Road, Etruria, ST1 5PE.<br />
Wednesday, 19 th October: The Leopard, Market Place,<br />
Burslem, ST6 3AA.<br />
Wednesday, 16 th November: The Beehive, Honeywall,<br />
Penkhull, ST4 7HU.<br />
Saturday 8 th October: Mini-bus tour. Continuing The<br />
PPPG’s 20th anniversary celebrations, we start at<br />
Coachmaker’s Arms in Hanley (Lichfield Street, ST1 3EA<br />
& on CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors)<br />
at 1pm, then travel to The Birches Head in Birches Head,<br />
The Holy Inadequate in Etruria, then Newcastle, Penkhull<br />
and Stoke, our last pub of the night being The Congress<br />
in Longton, arriving at 9pm to present them with our<br />
Community Pub of the Year award.<br />
THE CAMRA INVESTMENT CLUB<br />
Have you ever thought about putting some money into<br />
something you are interested in? Such as real ale? You<br />
can put anything from £5 a month into The CAMRA<br />
Members’ Investment Club and it is invested are your<br />
behalf into a range of companies, such as Adnam’s,<br />
Fuller’s and Greene King. The Club also arranges a<br />
number of brewery trips each year, to which members are<br />
invited.<br />
If you are interested, there are three ways of getting in<br />
touch. Either:<br />
(a) visit our website at www.CMIC.uk.com or<br />
(b) telephone Jannette on 01772 457 992 or<br />
(c) write to 31 Chapel Brow, Leyland, Lancashire,<br />
PR25 3NH<br />
AUTUMN 2016 <strong>POTTERS</strong> <strong>BAR</strong> 35
Change language