Project Update - 16th October 2019

The Race for the Racehorse

There has been an exciting development in our attempts to open the Racehorse since our last update. The owner has offered us the opportunity to rent the pub for a year at a rate of £100 per week with an option to buy the property after 13 months.  This gives us the opportunity to see if we can make our village pub work. We are currently working on a business plan where we clean, decorate, open and then run the pub with volunteers. We will be holding a village meeting on Friday 8th November to discuss our plans, so please come along.

Our mission remains to buy the pub and currently this seems the best, if not the only way forward. Assuming that we run a profitable business over the course of the year, we are confident that we would be able to raise the capital necessary to meet the asking price through a mix of fundraising, attracting more pledges and be better able to gauge the level of debt we can take on.

This opportunity offers us the benefits of a trial year; essentially this means we can see if the appetite in the village for a pub is large enough to sustain the business. It will also offer opportunities to test different ideas beyond selling beer, such as a daytime café. 

Subject to how the negotiations progress with the vendor, the current thinking of the committee is to recommend taking on the contract - a bit like Brexit it is time to get it sorted! And we will be looking to open as soon as possible – our aim is (optimistically) early in December. 

Our plans for setting up a Community Pub in Westhall will require lots of support from everyone and it will be vital to find as many volunteers as possible. There will be lots to do in terms of planning and preparing before we can open the doors and we are currently looking for volunteers to help – you don’t need particular skills (although the are useful), just enthusiasm! Once the pub is open, we will need lots more help too and if you want to join the committee even better!

We have also arranged a training session with Bernard Lee from Inntuition in Westhall Village Hall on Friday 25th October at 9.30 a.m. He will be going through the skills needed to open and run a pub.The purpose of the course is to set out a strategy to get up and running efficiently and legally as soon as possible. Please let us know if you would like to take part.

Date for your diary

At 7.30pm on Friday, November 8th at Westhall Village Hall we will be holding an open meeting. We will present our plans, field questions and the intention is that we reach a decision on whether or not to progress. 

The meeting will begin with the AGM of The Westhall Community Pub Society. It will include a brief outline of the work that has been done since we set up our Community Benefit Society and voting for Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. Please submit nominations before the meeting and let us know if you would like to join the committee. 

The pop up pub will be open throughout the evening.

Many thanks from the management committee