Further support announced

The Black Horse Community Group awarded support from More Than A Pub: The Community Pub Business Support Programme 

A campaign to save a much-loved Grimston, Saxelbye & Shoby parish pub from closure has been awarded support from More than a Pub: The Community Pub Business Support Programme. 

The Black Horse Community Group will receive a package of specialist business advice and a £2,500 bursary from More than a Pub, a programme established to help support community ownership of pubs in England. The programme value is £2.2 million and is funded by Power to Change. It is being delivered by the Plunkett Foundation in collaboration with Co-operative & Community Finance, Key Fund, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), Co-operative Mutual Solutions, Pub is the Hub, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Locality. 

“We’re delighted to have been awarded support from More than a Pub,” said Mike Petty, the Group’s Chair. “It will support us in the costs associated with incorporation and building a business case to purchase the pub”. 

The support and enthusiasm from the community so far has been fantastic and reflects the concern that people have about the potential loss of this cherished pub. We are attempting to buy the pub on behalf of the community so that it can be open once more. The application process for the bursary was highly competitive, especially as the funding programme is coming to an end. Being awarded this bursary demonstrates the confidence that the Plunkett Foundation has in the Community Group delivering on this project.

Plunkett Foundation’s James Alcock, Executive Director for Plunkett, said: “We’re so pleased to be able to support The Black Horse Community Group who are working hard to make sure their community can benefit from everything that having a thriving local pub brings. Pubs that are owned and run by the community are so much more than a place to buy a drink; they provide important social spaces and services for local people, and are central to their community’s sense of place and identity.” 

We have engaged a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, who specialises in the valuation of public houses, who inspected the property and produced a valuation report. Based on the report, the Community Group has now made an offer to purchase The Black Horse pub.