THE group leading the community effort to buy and reopen The Britannia Inn on Bath Road, Wells, as a pub and community hub is awaiting an independent valuation report on the property.
The Wellington Pub Company-owned pub, which has been closed for three years, is up for sale with an asking price of £350,000.
Chartered Surveyor and RICS Registered Valuer David Broschomb, of Dabro & Associates, was allowed in to The Britannia Inn in June to carry out a valuation for the East Wells Community Benefit Society (CBS), that was set up by the ‘Save the Brit’ steering group. His report is due at the end of June or in the first few days of July.
He told Wells Voice: “It is a pleasure to undertake an independent RICS valuation on behalf of communities, as it gives them the basis for offers and submission for funding.
“Having undertaken many such valuations, I know that community purchases are different, in that they are not interested in any pub, it is just their pub and thus their hard work to save and purchase it.”
The East Wells CBS is also arranging for a structural survey to be carried out, before the business plan is finalised and work can start in earnest on the share offer.
Possible future activities at The Brit, as it is affectionately known, include live music, pub quizzes, coffee mornings, a Warm Space, skittles, book exchange and parties.
The CBS is reaching out to professionals in the local community who might be able to give their time for free, or at a reduced rate, to assist with various aspects of putting together a bid for the pub and developing it if it is eventually purchased. Accountants, solicitors or architects, in particular, who could help on an ad hoc basis are invited to contact the Society by emailing admin@eastwellscbs.org
The campaign to purchase the pub was featured in an article in the latest edition of Pints West, the award-winning magazine produced by the Campaign for Real Ale Bristol & District and Bath & Borders branches.
As was reported in the May edition of Wells Voice, it told readers about progress made so far in the campaign, and quoted steering group Chair Councillor Theo Butt Philip, who said: “The community has said it wants to ‘Save the Brit’, and that’s what we are doing our best to achieve.”