£15,000 for fight to save pub
CAMPAIGNERS hoping to save a fire-damaged pub from demolition have received a £15,000 boost.
The Blundell Arms Community Pub group was given the money through grant funding as it campaigns to restore and reopen the pub in Upper Aughton Road.
The group, led by local resident Jason McCormack, has been running a long campaign to buy and reopen the building as a community pub featuring a dementia cafe and microbrewery.
It has been hit by constant setbacks, including a huge fire destroying much of the pub’s roof during the summer, but the campaigners have remained determined.
Although the building was sold to developer Gascoigne Davidson Projects, which has since submitted plans to knock it down and build housing in its place.
The plans went before Sefton Council’s planning committee in September but a decision was delayed until no earlier than November.
Jason said he had raised proposals with the developer to keep the pub open with four houses built on the adjacent land and hopes to raise enough money by selling shares to residents to fund buying the building and finance a revised planning application.
That plan was boosted this month after the Reach Fund awarded £15,000 to the campaign group.
The Reach Fund, which gives grants to charities and social enterprises in need of investment, is awarded by the Social Investment Business and has given the campaign group almost the maximum single grant total it offers.
Separately, an online crowdfunding page is to be set up, while £250 shares are now available for residents to buy, as well as a scheme which allows donors to have their name engraved on a brick outside the pub.
Helen Green, a nurse involved with the group, explained that its plans would involve “a community resource hub that offers access to all the various agencies those touched by dementia will come into contact with in one place”.
She explained: “[It will] provide a relaxed, non clinical setting that will reduce social isolation and carer stress by providing meaningful activity and peer support.
“Offering support from an Admiral nurse and guest speakers, the resource will provide medical, legal and practical advice and support.
“This will be free of charge and take place on a regular basis so is easily accessible.”