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Liverpool CAMRA's 'Save the Roscoe Head'
campaign spearheads customers' support for Pubs
LIVERPOOL'S Roscoe Head Pub, is located on Roscoe
Street and it was at the center of a rally organised by the Campaign for
Real Ale (CAMRA), with the theme:- 'List Your Local', was held
on Saturday, 7 November 2015.
The rally was attended by hundreds of CAMRA members, who had also been
joined by the local 'Save the Roscoe Head' campaigners. The event aimed at
highlighting the opportunity for pub goers to support their local pubs by
nominating them as Assets of Community Value. At a time when 29 pubs are
being lost a week, Assets of Community Value (ACVs) have a vital role to
play in ensuring that local communities are consulted before local pubs are
lost.
The Rally was addressed by the National Chairman of CAMRA, Colin Valentine,
who said:- "We all have a role to play in the effort to keep pubs open
and at the heart of community life. The Government need to support pubs
through ensuring the tax burden pubs face is sustainable; pub owners need to
support pubs through investment and supporting licensee's efforts to boost
trade and pub goers have a role to play by using their local pub on a
regular basis and by listing those pubs that they really value as Assets of
Community Value."
The aim of CAMRA's 'List Your Local' campaign is to have pub
goers across the country list their valued local pub as an Asset of
Community Value, which then gives the pub a degree of protection against
proposals for change of use. The subsequent requirement for owners to seek
planning permission if they wish to convert any pub to another use gives
local people an opportunity to challenge the proposal and develop
alternative proposals to retain the pub. CAMRA's aim is to have over 3,000
pubs listed as ACVs by the end of 2016.
Currently the Roscoe Head is the only pub in Liverpool to be listed as an
ACV.
The 'Save the Roscoe Head' campaign started as a result of the
sale of the pub by Punch Taverns to retail property investor, NewRiver
Retail, who now own 350 pubs. Liverpool CAMRA's Press Officer, Geoff Edwards
said:- "The aim of the 'Save the Roscoe Head' campaign is to safeguard
the future of this famous pub by persuading owners NewRiver Retail to sell
the pub to its licensee, Carol Ross, whose family has run the pub for over
30 years and who have made it what it is today... 1 of CAMRA's 'Famous 5'
best pubs in Britain. It is fitting that the rally is taking place at the
Roscoe Head, as the pub symbolises the importance of our Great British Pubs.
The pub has just celebrated 43 years in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, 1 of only
5 pubs in the whole of the UK to have that accolade, yet it has been sold to
a retail investment company; giving rise to concern about the long term
future of the pub and the current licensee. If that can happen to 1 of the
Famous 5 pubs, then pub goers need to wake up to the threat to their local
pubs and act now to get them listed as Assets of Community Value. In
Liverpool our message to NewRiver Retail is 'Sell the Pub to Carol' to
ensure its future as a pub which is a shining example for Liverpool and
Britain."
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