‘The wonderful turnout shows clear support by the villagers’ – Reed group throw pop-up pub night as Cabinet campaign pushes on

Graham Stuart serving the drinks. Picture: Clive Porter (Image: Clive Porter)

Save the Cabinet organised the event on Saturday where the village hall became a classic pub, selling drinks and hot food. There were traditional pub games and music from acoustic outfit Sky West.

The Cabinet pub has been closed since 2011, and was bought by a developer last year who intends to turn it into a house.

Campaigner Edwin Kilby said: “The hall looked beautiful, everyone was overjoyed that there was a pub back in Reed for the night – what’s not to like?

“Lots of people were saying how they wished the pub could be restored in Reed, they signed our comments book and said that it’s a travesty of justice.”

The group are hoping by advancing their campaign – with the pub night, the launch of a fighting fund and getting historic buildings and planning consultant Dale Ingram on board – they will be able to stop the development going through.

Ms Ingram helped stop the redevelopment of The Three Tuns in Guilden Morden.

“Communities large and small are mounting increasingly robust campaigns to protect their local from developers keen to make a quick buck,” she said.

“But a community pub is more than an economic unit, it is a social benefit which cannot be expressed merely in monetary terms, and this has been recognised by government in the Assets of Community Value legislation.”

Campaigner Ken Langley said: “The atmosphere is sanguine over this very sensitive and important village asset.

“The wonderful turnout at the event with a wide age group shows clear support by the villagers to have their local returned to them.”

When the Crow asked developer Richard Newman for comment, he said he didn’t know anything about the pop-up pub event, and hadn’t seen it advertised. And on his plans for the Cabinet, he said: “It’s my family home, I have no intention of moving on. I love the village.”