Author: Admin

Great news! We’ve now cracked the £50,000 barrier, but time is short so please get those Share Offer Applications filled in and returned as soon as possible. We’ve got a pub to buy!

Please see the Documents page on this website for more information and a share application form

The Community Share Offer will be opening shortly. During the week commencing 21st August 2017, local residents will be receiving their copy of the brochure which provides details of the share offer, along with information on other ways in which they may invest in the future of the Cross Keys.

A campaign to save the historic and much-loved Cross Keys pub in Redgrave from closure has been awarded support from More Than A Pub: The Community Pub Business Support Programme.

The Redgrave Community Society, which has been formed to raise funds to acquire the pub on behalf of the community, will receive a package of specialist business advice and a £2,500 bursary from More Than A Pub, a unique two year programme established to help support community ownership of pubs in England. Its value is £3.62 million and is jointly funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government and Power to Change. It is being delivered by Plunkett Foundation in collaboration with Co-operative & Community Finance, Key Fund, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), Co-operative Mutual Solutions, Pub is the Hub and Locality.

“We’re delighted to have been awarded support from More Than A Pub,” said the Steering Group chair Ian Brown “Together with up to £5,000 financial support from Redgrave Parish Council we now have the funds to kick start the project and to prepare to raise the funds needed to complete the purchase”

Following the village meeting in May, which gave overwhelming support to the acquisition of the Cross Keys, the steering group has been busy preparing for a fund raising effort during the summer and early autumn. This has included applying for the registration of a Community Benefit Society which will be the legal entity through which funds can be raised and, if successful, the purchase completed. It is anticipated that formal fundraising will commence towards the end of July.

Plunkett Foundation’s Nicole Hamilton, project manager for More Than A Pub, said: “We’re so pleased to be able to support the Redgrave Community Society Steering Group who are working hard to make sure their community can benefit from everything that having a thriving local pub brings. Pubs that are owned and run by the community are so much more than a place to buy a drink; they provide important social spaces and services for local people, and are central to their community’s sense of place and identity.”

Preparation of the share prospectus is currently underway and it is anticipated that a fundraising launch event will be held in early August. Watch out for further updates on village noticeboards, the parish magazine, and through our Facebook page at Redgrave Community Pub News.