The Red Lion, Sidbury: saved for the village as a pub

The campaign to save Sidbury's only remaining pub has garnered a great deal of support and praise over the last year:
Futures Forum: The Red Lion, Sidbury
Futures Forum: Red Lion Sidbury: now an Asset of Community Value
Futures Forum: Save The Red Lion Campaign: meeting Tues 24th Sept
Futures Forum: Save The Red Lion Campaign: launch of ‘Sidbury Community Enterprises Limited’ share offer
Futures Forum: Sidbury Community Enterprises to buy Red Lion, Sidbury
Futures Forum: Save the Red Lion: first open day to promote share offer: Friday 25th April

In last week's Herald, the news was reported that the Red Lion will indeed be saved - but from an unexpected quarter:
Meet Sidbury pub’s new owner - News - Sidmouth Herald

A report in the trade press today confirms the news:

Red Lion in Sidbury to remain as a pub

Post a commentBy Ellie Bothwell , 07-Aug-2014
Last updated the 07-Aug-2014 at 17:28 GMT

Related topics: General News, Property News

A Devonshire community group that failed to raise the funds to buy its local have praised the fact the venue will remain as a pub.

Sidbury Community Enterprises were not able to buy the Red Lion

Sidbury Community Enterprises (SCE) fought for more than a year  to keep the Red Lion in Sidbury as a pub, after its closure led to fears that it could be converted to another use.

The group launched a share offer in April this year, but only managed to raise £102,250 of owner Punch Taverns’ renewed £190,000 asking price. The original asking price had been £295,000.

But despite the fact SCE failed to purchase the property, Punch said it has entered into an agreement with a private buyer who will retain the building as a pub.

SCE secretary John Loudoun said he now hopes the pub, which was listed as an asset of community value last year and is the only pub in the village, “will go from strength to strength”.

“Although the vision that SCE launched for the pub cannot be realised through community share ownership, we are pleased to have managed to secure the use of the premises as a pub for at least five years. So there is much to celebrate.

“A big thank you to everyone who has in any way, big or small, contributed to or supported the project to retain the Red Lion as Sidbury’s village pub.”

A Punch Taverns spokesman said completion of the contracts for the pub is set for 26 August.

Red Lion in Sidbury to remain as a pub

Yesterday, in its latest report, the View from Sidmouth quoted the Save the Red Lion Campaign:
SIDMOUTH: Village pub set to reopen as campaign comes to a close

Here is the campaign statement in full:

Sunday, 3 August 2014

Campaign Results In New Red Lion Owner

We have not communicated with you for several weeks since we alerted you to the fact that Punch Taverns had opened negotiations with another potential purchaser after we were unable to raise sufficient funds through the Sidbury Community Enterprises share offer to purchase the Red Lion, refurbish it and to fund the required start-up costs.

The reason for saying nothing since then was that, whilst Punch Taverns has kept us abreast of the progress of the purchase negotiations with the other potential purchaser we were provided information on a strictly confidential basis. However, in light of the report of Tom Barrington’s successful purchase of the Red Lion in today’s Sidmouth Herald we feel that we can now address the issue.

Firstly, we offer Tom our congratulations in successfully purchasing the Red Lion and obviously we hope that it will go from strength to strength under his ownership. It is in the village’s interest that it has a popular village pub, which was the main objective of the Campaign. We understand that Tom may not be opening until later in the month. 

This has therefore brought the activities of Save The Red Lion Campaign and Sidbury Community Enterprises to a conclusion almost 15 months from when it all began at the open meeting in the Red Lion’s skittle alley on 19 May last year. We believe that although the vision that Sidbury Community Enterprises launched for the pub cannot be realised through community share ownership, we are pleased to have managed to secure the use of the premises as a pub for at least 5 years.

Many people who live both locally and further afield have, over the past 15 months, supported the Campaign’s activities to retain the Red Lion. We could have found ourselves in a situation where the village pub closed permanently, rather than just as presently for the temporary period between Punch Taverns and Tom Barrington’s ownership. We are sure that Tom will recognise that through our efforts the purchase price was reduced by £100,000. 

So there is much to celebrate. Our thanks also must go to Hugo Swire and Reverend Susie Williams for being the Campaign Patrons. Much thanks also go to DCC Clr Claire Wright for her personal unwavering support and her financial support from her DCC Locality Budget. We also received good financial support from the Keith Owen Fund. Both of these funding streams allowed the Campaign to thrive and we are very grateful to them.

We have received great support and much free publicity from the local press including from BBC Radio Devon, Express & Echo, Western Morning  News, Pulmans View from Sidmouth and in particular the Sidmouth Herald. Our thanks go to all of them.

We received a significant grant from a government funded agency which allowed us to buy in assistance from expert advisers and we now need to reconcile what we have spent from the grant and to return the balance. We now need to withdraw our funding application for over £100,000 for a capital grant that would have made up the shortfall from the share offer.

Without the invaluable initial support of the Plunkett Foundation from the very start we would not have been able to construct a meaningful business plan which formed the basis of our share offer.

In the end the share offer raised £102,250 from 157 investors. This was raised over a period of just over 5 weeks! We think that was a great achievement and showed that the vision for a future Red Lion had significant support. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to allow Sidbury Community Enterprises to complete the purchase of the Red Lion. We were clear that £200,000 was the minimum that we needed to raise in order to deliver the vision and the basic refurbishment required.

Our thanks too must go to all of those who have served on the Steering Group, past and present. Between them they invested a great deal of time, energy and commitment to delivering the vision. Our job, along with them now is to settle outstanding bills associated with the 15 month campaign and to return all of the uncashed cheques to our investors. This we will do over the forthcoming weeks. Their faith in the project was incredible.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has in any way, big or small, contributed to or supported the project to retain the Red Lion as Sidbury’s village pub. And once again we wish Tom Barrington good luck and every success.

Regards

Fred Burnett                              John Loudoun

Chair                                          Secretary

Save The Red Lion Campaign : Sidbury Village Website

See also:
The Pub In The Village
Red Lion Inn | Pub | Sidbury
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