Community fighting to save Calderdale village pub have six months to raise funds to buy it
Residents hoping to stop a Calderdale village pub being turned into housing have moved a step forward in their battle.
Wadsworth Area Community Assets (WACA) says the current owner of The Hare and Hounds Inn, on Lane Ends Lane in Old Town near Hebden Bridge, has been in touch about a potential sale to the community group.
WACA now says it has six months to raise the funds needed to buy the pub.
As reported by the Courier, WACA registered the pub as an Asset of Community Value under the Community Right to Bid scheme last month.
The status gives the group six months to put a community bid together to buy it.
On its website, WACA has posted: “We are looking for members and volunteers, and we’ll soon be sharing our plans for how people can get more involved.
"We recognise that the process of community fundraising and public campaigning can involve strong views. WACA is committed to ensuring that all such activity is conducted in a positive and respectful manner at all times, and trusts that all supporters of WACA and members of the wider community will do the same.”
A consultation questionnaire is being drawn up and a public meeting is planned.
For more information, email [email protected].
Calderdale Council is currently considering an application to turn the pub into housing.
Papers submitted with the bid say the premises, which shut in September after going up for sale last July, are not financially viable as a pub, despite “sustained and innovative efforts to grow the business over a five-year period”.
But more than 300 people have registered objections to the plans.