Pub conversion 'Not Wanted'
29 September, 2008
Save the Summercross campaigners hand out leaflets to protect their local pub
Campaigners fighting to save their community pub have taken their protest to a local folk festival.
The Save our Summercross (SOS) group visited Otley Folk Festival, in West Yorkshire, to hand out leaflets to local music fans.
The Summercross pub was closed last year, and the building was subsequently bought by Leeds-based Chartford Homes, which hopes to build homes on the site.
The leaflets carried the message that Chartford Homes is “Not Wanted”.
Campaign leader Shirley Lewis, said: “We saw the folk festival as an ideal opportunity to let as many people as possible know that yet another profitable pub had been closed for no other reason than greedy developers wanting to build on it.
“Our message is the same as it has been over the past few months, ‘we want out local back’.”
Leeds North West MP and SOS member Greg Mulholland, said: “It’s time for Chartford Homes to admit they shouldn’t have bought it – especially now with the downturn in the house building industry – and sell it to someone who will re-open the pub. For next year's Otley Folk Festival, we want to see the pub once again welcoming people to the town with great beer and live music.”
Earlier this year, Leeds City Council planners threw out an application to demolish the pub, along with a full application to construct 14 houses.
The campaign’s website is at www.sosotley.org.uk
Readers' comments
Good to see locals actually fighting back for once against what seems to be an absurd situation. Chartford Homes should be ashamed of themselves doing things in their own backyard. That's a really good way to win people over!