Julie Lucas
Sunday, June 30, 2013
11:32 AM
A GROUP are making a bid to save a pub for the community.
The Woolpack in Shefford was owned by landlady Sally Taylor, who ran it for 27 years. She died suddenly in September last year and the pub closed in October.
The Woolpack Community Support Group has formed to nominate the pub to be put on the Assets of Community Value register under the Localism Act.
The aim of the legislation is to help keep buildings or land valued by communities – such as a pub, shop or football ground – within the community.
Once on the register, if a building is offered for sale, people within that community have up to six months to prepare a bid to purchase it.
A spokesman for the group said: “The Woolpack was something of an institution for its regulars, and Sally ran a pub that provided an opportunity for all members of the community, all backgrounds and of all ages to come together and share a laugh and a chat.
“Sadly, the closure of the pub has seen people who would almost certainly meet in the ‘Woolly’ at least once a week rarely see each other in the last year.
“There is no financial motivation or aspiration for our group, we just want to see The Woolpack open as a pub, whoever owns it, as it represented something special in our town and in the lives of the people who used it.”
A spokesman for Shefford Town Council said: “As a council we definitely support this and are happy to offer support by letter for the parties involved but we cannot support it in a financial way.”
Central Bedfordshire Council has until August 2 to decide whether The Woolpack meets the criteria to be put on the Assets of Community Value register.
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