A community pub that was closed for two and half years during the pandemic has been recognised with an award after a miraculous return.
The George, in Bethersden, was saved after villagers raised the £300,000 they needed to buy it and now the campaign for real ale have recognised the embattled local hotspot.
We sent out reporter Finn Macdiarmid down to find out why its so important to local in the area...
The George, in Bethersden, was saved after villagers raised the £300,000 they needed to buy it and now the campaign for real ale have recognised the embattled local hotspot.
We sent out reporter Finn Macdiarmid down to find out why its so important to local in the area...
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00After the COVID-19 pandemic, the George pub in Bethesden had the task of repairing and
00:05restoring their grade-listed building for use. And only several years on from reopening
00:09their doors, they've managed to win the Campaign for Real Ale's best pub in Ashford, Folkestone
00:13and Romney Marsh.
00:15Pub regulars came down ahead of their beer festival to celebrate the achievement.
00:18Oh, it feels fantastic. The vibe here is wonderful. I come to the George quite a lot. It's an
00:23amazing community-run pub. The village have bought the pub. There are so many shareholders
00:28of the pub who live here in the village and everybody in Bethesden really supports what
00:32the George is doing and has been trying to do. The food here is fantastic, the drinks here
00:37are fantastic, so this recognition from camera is just the icing on the cake.
00:41Now the pub's success is made all the better by the fact it's community-owned, meaning a
00:45committee of local residents are in charge of the pub, rather than a company, which they
00:49say provides a local touch.
00:51The pub wouldn't be here if the community weren't here regularly, keeping it afloat.
00:58So, what we as an organisation have tried to do is to work with clubs and organisations
01:08within the village and we're trying to develop that all of the time.
01:13Now although the village will be celebrating the George's success, plenty of other pubs
01:18do struggle, with the total going down year on year. So, what's the solution? Could it be
01:23that being a community-owned pub actually helps, or is there a dark future that lies ahead of
01:28us where we just don't have somewhere to enjoy our pints anymore?
01:32If community ownership is the solution, then there's a long way to go. According to Statista,
01:37there are more than 45,000 pubs across the UK, but it's only a small minority of them where
01:42local people own it as part of a committee. According to the Campaign for Real Ale, there's
01:47only 217 of them in the whole country, meaning less than half a percent of pubs are community-owned.
01:53And with the amount of pubs on the decline, officials say current government measures don't
01:57do much to help.
01:58Beer is one part of it, as far as tax is concerned, but there are so many other considerations
02:03to make. You have business rates, you have other taxes, you have utilities, so gas, electric,
02:10all of those things, wages, there are so many parts that make making a pub viable. So you
02:16need to look at a lot more things than just taking a penny off of the pint of beer.
02:20Well, since they've won pub of the year in Ashford, Folkestone and Romney Marsh, the George
02:24will go up against other winners to see if they can take the title for East Kent as well.
02:29Oh, very, very excited. We've got to win it.
02:34Finn McDermid for KMTV in Bethesden.