We have few updates to share, on the following topics: 1) Pledges, 2) Parish Council, 3) Walden Local, 4) Beer raising equipment, 5) Business plan/accounts 6) Pub signs 7) Banner for the triangle.

1. Pledges have now made by 110 shareholders, for £116,450, which is very close to halfway of what we are looking to raise from shareholders. This includes 6 who have pledged since the festival last weekend. We have had good response from the flyer which has enjoyed a prominent position inside the Village Views for the last two months. If anyone was of a mind to increase their pledge, this would make a real difference - please message us directly on WhatsApp or by email to team@littleburypub.co.uk . Richard and I are working to send an email for each pledge to confirm the amount pledged.

2. We have had encouraging discussions with the Parish Council about a potential 1/3rd loan or stake in the pub being financed suing their ability to borrow from the government. We shared the draft business plan, some suggestions as to the legal arrangements, and followed up with draft accounts. We are hopefully due to hold another working group meeting before the September PC meeting.

3. The ‘Walden Local’ has offered to feature the campaign on the cover of their paper and ideally would like a photo of the pub with a gathering of local support outside - as they did for the Ickleton Lion campaign. We are proposing Sunday 1st September, 4pm for this - please come along.

4. Beer raising equipment Very sadly the brand new chillers and pipe-work in the QH cellar is all owned by Martons Carlsberg group (via. Innserve Ltd.) and this is excluded from the freehold sale of the pub. I have discussed the contractual arrangements with Carlsberg and we need to source at least 60% of the draught products sold from them in order to retain the equipment. In exchange they will service/repair faults etc. I have provisional beer pricing under this arrangement, which we will compare with non-contracted pricing. There is a buoyant used hand market for chillers to secure true open market beer rates, however we might not have the expertise or financing to take this on at the start. Also of note - the hand pumps for Ales (known as “beer engines”) have all been removed, and we need to budget around £1k to replace them. Separately the Cellar chillers are owned by GK, however we think it is likely they will remain in place.

5. Business plan/accounts we have circulated copies of our provisional figures to a few people who have emailed in (or asked on Whatsapp). The spreadsheet is …redacted.. We believe these figures are all reasonable, realistic and show a path to break-even even considering the costs of maintaining a listed building.

6. Pub signs we note that Green King have removed their signage from the front of the building. We don’t know why or if this is good news or not!

7. To help drum up support, we are considering a banner for the triangle opposite the pub. We can arrange this but we would like to know if there are any objections before hand. Richard has offered to sort the printing and I will come up some wording. Unfortunately we cannot affix to the site fencing of the pub itself, but this seems like a good spot to target passing traffic.

See you at the next Pop-up Pub this Friday, the 6th of September!

Update: What a fantastic group photo - Many Thanks Gordon