Pubs

hesket_newmarketThe local pub plays a crucial role in community life – both as a source of enterprise and as a vehicle for community action – and I am dismayed at the current rate of closure nationally and at home. This is an industry that is of huge importance to our constituency, its communities, and indeed to the national economy. With five breweries and 174 pubs, this is a significant economic and social driver that we need to do more to support.

We have worked incredibly hard in Penrith and the Border to show how an imaginative and flexible approach can ensure that our pubs remain open: in Hesket Newmarket we have the first community-owned pub in Britain, a model that was followed in Crosby Ravensworth with the community buy-out of the Butcher’s Arms (the bar of which the Prime Minister himself opened). I have also been involved in helping the George and Dragon in Garrigill, the Chamley Arms in Warcop, and the Strickland Arms in Great Strickland.

If anyone is concerned about the future of their village pub, or would like help and support re-opening their pub, please do get in touch.

prime_minister

prime minister visits eden valley’s big society vanguard

Rory was “honoured and delighted” to welcome Prime Minister David Cameron to the Eden village of Crosby Ravensworth yesterday, in a visit that saw the Prime Minister meet and chat with members of the Big Society vanguard project over a ploughman’s lunch provided by the Crosby Ravensworth Food Alliance at the newly refurbished community-owned pub, […]

with_prospero

national pub campaign ‘follows cumbrian lead’

Rory has voiced his enthusiastic support to a Government review that will boost the number of local pubs nationally. Rory welcomed the announcement last week that, as part of its commitment to the Great British pub, the Government has launched a review of restrictive covenants, a legal clause that can be used to prevent community […]

co-operative pubs

Helping communities to set up and run co-operative pubs is key to saving rural pubs in Cumbria. This was the message from Rory at an event at the Old Crown co-operative pub in Hesket Newmarket on Saturday 2nd July, where the local MP met with publicans, community members, councillors and representatives of the Plunkett Foundation […]

hesket_newmarket

save your local

Rory is inviting constituents to join him for a pint this Saturday to find out how they can save their local pub from closure. The event, set to take place on Saturday 2nd July, 2.30 – 4:00pm, will be held in association with the Plunkett Foundation, an organisation that supports community-ownership in rural communities, at […]

alston local shops campaign

Last weekend Rory helped launch a new Alston initiative with Sustainable Alston Moor to promote independent retail in the market town: Alston Moor SOS – Save our Shops and Services. The town’s campaign will encourage local residents to do more of their shopping in the town, which boasts restaurants, cafes, pubs, takeaways, craft and antique […]

cumbrian community pub model

In a two and a half hour debate in the House of Commons, Rory praised Cumbrian pubs and recommended the Cumbrian approach as a model for the country. Praising the importance of pubs in village life, Rory said “we have 280 pubs in the Eden district alone for 50,000 people-a density of pubs that is more than six […]