Needles getting £50k spruce-up

PUB WILL HAVE NEW PAINT, CARPETS AND FURNITURE

THE Needles pub in Alvaston is getting a long-awaited £50,000 refurbishment.

Husband and wife Trevor and Melanie Jenkinson have convinced the owners to shell out cash to improve the Bembridge Drive pub.

It will be spent on sprucing up the outside, getting new furniture and new interior lighting, and creating more space in the pub by removing some seating.

The Jenkinsons think there is a lot of potential at the Needles and have been working hard to make the most of it since they took it over last Christmas.

Mr Jenkinson said that when highbacked benches are removed from the middle of the pub it will open up the space, creating more options for what they can do with it.

He said: “They have agreed to take all that out and it will open up the whole pub. There will be tables in the daytime and then in the evenings it will be more like a dancefloor.”

The pub hosts a disco and karaoke every Friday and has groups and singers every weekend. They usually perform on a raised section at the back of the pub, but the high-backed benches can obscure the view.

When the benches are removed it will allow customers to make the most of the entertainment.

Mr Jenkinson said there would also be several other improvements in a refurbishment which he estimated Melanie and Trevor Jenkinson run the Needles pub in Alvaston would cost between £45,000 and £55,000.

He said: “We are going to paint the outside and decorate it. We will be redecorating. There will be new carpets, some new wooden floors, and new tables and chairs. There will be new lighting inside because it can be quite a dark pub. They will also put in a new range cooker.”

Mr Jenkinson said that when he and his wife took over the pub the kitchen had not been used for 16 years. It has now been restored and, from Sunday, they will be serving roast dinners for £5 per head.

The pub also serves a range of real ales. Mr Jenkinson said that on one of the hottest days of this year he sold more real ale than Carling lager – an idea he would have laughed at a year ago.

Mr Jenkinson said they had put a lot of effort into turning around the pub’s reputation.

He said: “Some of the young people around here are in gangs so we have had to bar them. It’s gone from being a young person’s pub to one where the age of people coming in is between 30 to 90. What they all want is to enjoy themselves, and there’s no trouble – we haven’t had any trouble in four or five months.”

■ A previous story said the Needles pub was looking for new tenants – this was incorrect. Our information had been taken from FindMyPub. com website.