A group which had hoped to reopen the Miners Arms, at Nenthead, as a community pub say they are appalled their application for a grant to carry the plan forward has been rejected.
The Miners Arms Community Pub Ltd (MACPL) was formed to buy, refurbish and run the pub in the remote North Pennines community and had raised around £115,000 to pursue this goal — with more than 240 people buying shares in the venture — but still needed grant support from the Community Ownership Fund to reach its target of more than £550,000.
The fund was set up under the previous Conservative administration under the oversight of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to allow community groups to bid for funding to help purchase and operate community assets.
MACPL submitted its bid into the fund’s fourth round of applications in April of this year, with the hope that a decision on the application would be made by the end of June.
Unfortunately, the early General Election called in May brought all government functions to a halt and the community group were left hanging until Parliament could reconvene after July.
And now, after a further lengthy wait, they have been told by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government that their bid was unsuccessful and the fund has been closed, so no further grants will be given out.
MACPL chair Simon Walker described the decision as appalling and a monumental kick in the teeth, saying: “We are saddened that our bid was unsuccessful — all our planning hinged on this grant.
“The project had no viable alternative plan and we regret that the dream of returning the Miners Arms to its former glory is now in ashes.”
He was very critical of the reasons given for the rejection of the bid, one of which was that MACPL had no experience of delivering similar projects in the past.
“It’s not something people do, collect community pubs,” he said, adding that in any case he had overseen a project costing more than £300,000 to revive the fortunes of Corbridge Cricket Club, in Northumberland.
Other supporters of MACPL are also dismayed by the end of their dream of reopening the Miners Arms, which had been at the heart of the village for generations, having first opened its doors nearly 200 years ago.
It closed in 2020 and has been for sale ever since.
MACPL secretary Laura Seaton said: “I’m absolutely gutted at the outcome for our dreams of the Miners Arms. I really thought we had a great chance of being awarded the COF grant, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
She added that talk by the Labour government of devolution were “not worth the paper they’re written on” and that communities like Nenthead were being left behind.
The MACPL board will now start the process of winding up the community benefit society and returning shareholders’ investments.
“The board would like to thank everyone for their support over the last 16 months as we tried to bring the Miners Arms back to the heart of the village,” added Mr Walker.
