Councillor in support of ACV application

Putting 'pints into public hands'

Below is the letter that Cllr Jones send to Richmondshire District Council, in support of the application to register the Old Horn Inn as an Asset of Community Value. If successful, this would give the community six months in order to buy the pub.

‘I am writing in support of the application for the Old Horn Inn, Spennithorne, to be registered as an Asset of Community Value.

The Old Horn is the last pub in Spennithorne. It’s loss would be a tremendous blow to the local community, and a regrettable step towards the deracination of this wonderful community.

Community spaces are few and far between in our area. It is the reality of changing Britain that our rural communities are facing an increasing number of channlenges; among these, perhaps the most prominent, is the challenge of increased separation.

In order to foster living, breathing community, our rural villages must be allowed the opportunity to keep the precious few community assets they still have. The pub remains, as it has done for hundreds of years, a steadfast and unchanging nidus of real fraternity.

Since the process to register the Old Horn as an Asset of Community Value began, there has been a swelling in civic pride; energetic and organic community leadership has seen people standing up for themselves and taking a real civic pride in where they live and what their community looks like.

To allow the pub to pass into private hands without at least giving the opportunity to a community so clearly motivated, so well organised and so keen to take on the rights and responsibilities of looking after their pub would be a grave error.

Economically, the pub is a large drawn for local tourism businesses such as holiday lets and caravan parks; I know that a local pub is a huge draw to holidaymakers, and its’ loss would have a knock-on effect in the local area. Some of these businesses are not large enough to buy and sustain a pub as part of their business model, yet these have too engaged in the process of registering, and are in full support.

It is entirely right that the community are given the chance to put pints into public hands, and I ask that you give the community a chance to shape its’ own future.

Yours,

Tom Jones’

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