Community co-op aims to save pub from closure
EFFORTS are being stepped up to save a west Wales pub from closure. Tafarn Sinc, in the village of Rosebush, in north Pembrokeshire, looks set to close before the end of the year unless the current owners can find a buyer to take over the reins.
With an asking price of £295,000, no acceptable offers have yet been received, and now a local community group wants to spearhead a campaign to keep the tavern alive.
The group, called Pembrokeshire Local Action Network for Enterprise and Development (Planed), organised a meeting alongside Welsh-language magazine Papur Bro Clebran in nearby Maenclochog last week to try to raise interest in the idea of a shared-purchase scheme.
“Many people wish to save this important and well-known pub from closure, and one way to do this is to arrange a community share offer,” said Pembrokeshire councillor Cris Tomas, who is a senior manager of Planed.
“The meeting was arranged to find out if there was support and we had hoped that possibly 40 people would turn up, but when we counted 116 attendees we knew that there was great interest.
“We have just had two working days of opening the financial pledges account and already over £20,000 has been gathered. We have until September 30 to reach a figure of over £300,000 to buy the pub, but the initial response has been exceptional.”
The meeting was attended by Shan Williams, of 4CG, a community group in Cardigan that has seen huge success in its efforts to acquire local assets, ranging from public toilets to a town car park.
She says it’s imperative a pub like Tafarn Sinc can not only remain open, but be under the control of local people who can pump profits back into the community.
“I’m 100% behind this venture,” she said. “It’s a great idea.
“I believe strongly that local people know best about what’s needed for their community. In Cardigan we’ve been able to give people a voice about things that affect them.
“This kind of ownership model gives people the power to decide the future of things that are dear to them. If a company from elsewhere takes over the pub, all the profits will be taken out of the area.”
Tafarn Sinc was built in 1876 as a hotel. It was bought in 1992 by the current owners, who carried out repairs and refurbishment work on the building and made it what it is today.
It’s called Tafarn Sinc because of the corrugated galvanised iron used in its construction, and is situated in the heart of the Preseli hills.
The pub has a reputation across west Wales as one that boasts a unique atmosphere for both locals and tourists – a sign on the bar asks you to “start every conversation in Welsh” – and is widely regarded as one of the best pubs to visit in Wales.
Councillor Mr Tomas has implored people to get in touch if they want to be involved in the project, before it’s too late.
“We have a short window of opportunity to buy Tafarn Sinc as a community benefit co-operative,” he added.
“It is planned that shareholders will receive an annual return on their investment of between 2% and 3%, but this will be very dependent on the performance of the business.”
If anyone is interested in getting involved and being a part-owner of an historic Welsh pub, they can get details of the application process at www.tafarnsinc.cymru