An emergency summit has been called to help communities trying to save their threatened local pub after the government pulled funding for a support programme. The decision to scrap the £3.3m Community-Owned Pubs Support Programme has also led to accusations that the new government is ‘contradicting’ its own ‘Big Society’ concept. The programme was launched in March by the previous administration to support 50 communities through community-ownership to save their local pub. But as the community pubs feature in the current edition of New Start reported, the programme was placed under review by the DCLG following the election and before any money had been distributed. The programme’s project leaders, the Plunkett Foundation, said the decision left communities ‘stranded’. Its emergency summit will bring together representatives from across the cooperative sector to discuss how communities can be supported to set up and run pubs in the wake of the announcement.
http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news/article/big-society-backlash-after-community-pubs-fund-axed/
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