Villagers raise £450,000 to save Trawden Arms from closure

The villagers raised the required funds by selling shares in the pub

Residents in a Lancashire village have raised £450,000 in seven weeks to save its last remaining pub from closure.

The Trawden Arms had been put up for sale by its owners with many locals fearing it could be purchased by a developer and turned into housing.

However, a group of Trawden's residents sold 350 shares to buy the pub and secure its future.

Dave Webber, who chairs Trawden Forest Community Pub Group, said locals were "over the moon".

The purchase of the pub marks the fourth time the villagers have taken matters into their own hands, as volunteers already run the village store, the local library - which has the post office inside - and the community centre.

Trawden is believed to be the only village in the UK where all four establishments have been taken into community control.

Mr Webber said the group were now looking for a new tenant to run the pub

Mr Webber said his group were "tremendously excited" about acquiring the pub.

"There's so many things we want to do with it," he said.

"We want to open it up to the community during the quiet hours, we want subsidised meals for the vulnerable in the village [and] we want to open it up for craft groups to go and visit."

A spokesman for the Plunkett Foundation, which supports community ownership projects, said there were now about 150 community-run pubs, a huge increase on the five that were run in that way in 2001.

"It shows a year-on-year growth and we have 250 currently in the pipeline and that's only going to continue growing in number," he added.

Mr Webber said the group were now looking for a new tenant to run the pub.

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