Cheers! Villagers awarded £240,000 to restore pub
A community is celebrating after news that it has been awarded £240,000 from the Government in Westminster to restore its village pub.
After closing in 2016, the Radnor Arms pub in New Radnor, Radnorshire, was purchased last year and the community have since been fundraising to pay for it by setting up a Community Benefit Society which applied to the Community Ownership Fund, and holding other fundraisers including an exhibition, concert, quizzes, and a community shop.
They plan to refurbish the pub and restore it to its former glory.
Brecon and Radnorshire MP Fay Jones visited the pub earlier this year and gave her support to their application to the Community Ownership Fund run by the Department for Levelling Up.
Ms Jones formally signed off the bid and lobbied ministers to support the application.
Ms Jones said: “I am absolutely delighted that the group behind the Radnor Arms has prevailed in their Community Ownership Fund bid. Pubs are at the heart of rural communities and restoring the Radnor Arms Hotel will breathe life into an incredibly special part of Radnorshire.
"When I visited the pub in May, I was struck by the passion and determination of the members of the Community Benefit Society. Hence why I set about pressing the case for the pub in Westminster and I am very glad that both the Secretary of State for Wales and Department for Levelling Up saw the potential of the plan.
“I want to say an enormous thank you to everyone involved in the bid and especially to the Interim Funder who stepped in to save the Radnor Arms for the town.
"This is such positive news and I cannot wait to see the work get underway, thanks to this funding.”
Ben Asson of the Community Benefit Society said: "It’s fantastic, an absolute knock out as far as we’re concerned. Regarding the project, this has kick started the whole thing now.
"We obviously need to raise the match funding to claim the money and that’s going to happen through the share issue we’re about to launch.
“As a rural community we need a place to meet and there’s a lot of people working on their own, self-employed people, farmers and a lot of elderly people who don’t see many folk, so it’s really important for the pub to be up and running as soon as possible.
“I’d like to thank The Plunkett Foundation, who had a lot of faith in us to start off with and gave a lot of support. I’d also like to thank Cwmpas, the Welsh Development Agency, they provided a lot of help and support.
"Our community council has provided us with unanimous backing. County Councillor Ed Jones backed us and without Fay Jones this probably wouldn’t have happened. It's a fantastic result!”
“We need a lot more investment so we’re looking for people who are interested in supporting us.”
Details of the whole business and their share issue can be found by going to: https://rahl-cbs.org
