A week to save village pub from last orders

So far, regulars of the Trawden Arms have raised a third of the total and in other similar schemes, the last week of the campaign has brought in up to half of total income.

And with a couple of grants still to hear back from, those behind the bid to save the pub are ploughing ahead with the fund-raising campaign and still getting plenty of share purchases each day.

If the people of Trawden and surrounding areas are successful in raising enough funds throughout May – and the purchase goes through – Trawden will be the only village in the UK with a community-run pub, shop, community centre and library.

And residents should be rightly proud of this achievement if they take the Trawden Arms into community ownership.

When residents of Trawden learned their last remaining village pub was up for sale and there was a danger it could be sold for development, the community came together to set up a steering group with a vision of bringing the pub into community ownership. The pub was made an Asset of Community Value last year.

Dave Webber, chairman of the steering group behind the bid to save the pub, said: “We have heard lots of people are waiting until they hear if we are going to achieve the target before buying their shares – we would encourage anyone holding out now to buy quickly, the offer closes on May 28th and after that it will be too late.

“Plans have already been drawn up to convert the property into flats – we are doing everything we can to keep our pub in the village forever but we are running out of time.

“We want to reassure potential investors that they will get their money back should the worse happen and we don’t get to the target amount. There really isn’t anything to lose by buying your shares now.”

Communications Officer Molly Ralphson aded: “Some people are not able to afford the minimum share offer, we are accepting donations into the account from anyone who wants to support our plea but doesn’t want to be a shareholder and the donation amount can be any value.

“We also accept shares bought by more than one person, so if a friend or two want to club together that’s also fine.”

For a copy of the share prospectus, business plan and more information visit www.trawdenarmsmorethanapub.com and a Q&A session is being planned for Saturday, see www.facebook.com/Trawdenarmsmorethanapub for more details.