Campaigners hoping to save Grade II-listed the Cabinet pub in Reed attended another pop-up pub night last weekend – fresh off the back of a village survey showing strong support for the pub to be reinstated.
The Cabinet has been closed since 2011, and was bought by a developer in 2016 to turn it permanently into housing, something the Save the Cabinet Action Group have been campaigning to stop.
Of the pop-up pub night at the village hall last Saturday, the group’s Edwin Kilby said: “It went very well. we raised more than £750 for our fighting fund. That’s a very good figure given what a lousy evening of weather it was!”
The group has welcomed the results of the Reed Parish Council survey, whereby 82 per cent of those who completed it approved of the idea of the parish council borrowing to buy the pub on behalf of the community if it came on the market, with 10 per cent against and eight per cent undecided – the return rate was 91 per cent.
The Public Works Loan Board goverment body makes loans to parish councils at preferential rates, and such loans can be used to save local pubs and other facilities.
As a first step, parish councils must seek permission from the Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government to borrow the money.
In July last year, North Hertfordshire district councillors refused planning permission for change of use of the building to a private house. Developer Nichard Newman has now lodged an appeal, which awaits validation by the Planning Inspectorate.
Mike Howes, chair of the Save the Cabinet Action Group, said: “We welcomed Reed Parish Council’s initiative to see if there is public support for buying the pub on behalf of the community and are delighted by the strong show of support for the idea. We know of interest from a potential private buyer and a local consortium, but this would provide a new option for reopening The Cabinet as a pub.
“Meanwhile we need to raise money urgently to cover the costs of making our case at the appeal as effectively as possible.”
“We are committed to resisting the developer’s appeal with all the fortitude we can muster. But we urgently need to raise money to enable us to make the strongest possible case for getting our lovely old pub back.”
Richard Newman told the Crow: “I don’t know anything about the appeal, I leave that to my architect, I live here and it’s our family home, and I’m sure the appeal is going to be successful.”
For more on Save The Cabinet go to their Facebook page www.facebook.com/Save-the-Cabinet-at-Reed-1588618694776118.
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