Musicians line up to support pub buyout

Glastonbury supremo Michael Eavis, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin and singer Peter Gabriel are among the stars supporting the Bell Inn in Bath, as locals rush to raise funds for what would be the UK’s largest pub co-operative buyout, writes Hannah Kuchler.

Musicians with memories of playing and drinking in the ramshackle pub have given money and support as the co-operative tries to raise £500,000 by Wednesday to see off bids from property developers and pub chains.

Mr Eavis has urged people to support the co-operative, saying The Bell and his music festival were “part of the same family”. Mr Plant said the pub was “a great window into the world of music and entertainment in the west country”.

Funds have come from as far away as Australia, after a fan of the London band Goldfrapp saw an advert on its website. But with a £20,000 cap on contributions, most of the money will come from regular pubgoers. One teenager bought a share two days after his 18th birthday, while the oldest contributor was 90.

Resting his pint on the bar, Stephen Bushell, a 61-year-old stone cutter, explains why he visits every evening on his way home. “It is a village shop, post office and pub,” he said. Mr Bushell has put £5,000 into the pot: partly to save his drinking hole from recreation as a gastropub and partly to save himself some tax. Investments in co-ops attract 30 per cent tax relief.

Hattie Knight, 23, cried when she found out the owner of 24 years was selling. Spurred into action, she made a film called Saved By the Bell, which she screened in a backyard shed to raise money. “You can just be yourself here. It is like a haven and a home from home,” she said.

For the six founder members of the co-op – who say they aim to keep the pub “rough and ready” – the past five weeks have been a very steep learning curve.

Patrick Cave, the pub manager, said: “Hours and hours and hours of sitting on the laptop going: what does this mean? What does the HMRC website say about this? And hours of talking to people who came and drank tea with us.”

Mr Cave thinks co-operatives are increasingly popular because they are an “antidote” to big business. “It’s completely the opposite of one or two individuals or big companies who are not local but have lots of power coming into a situation, changing it radically and being able to leave again if they want,” he said.

The campaign has benefited from rising political support for co-operatives, sometimes expressed as the “John Lewis economy”. Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat Bath MP and a junior minister in the communities department, helped launch the share issue, and the co-op has found it easy to access advice.

Low interest rates and wariness about the stock market may have also made buying into a co-op more attractive than before the financial crisis, the founder members say.

The pub has a long history of profitability and a recent rise in profits after improvements they describe as a “gentle innovation”. The shares do not rise in value but the founders hope to offer dividends of 5 per cent after a couple of years.

As a young band takes the stage, the bar is alive with chatter about the inn’s future. If they succeed in raising the money – and an offer is accepted – the co-op’s organisers know it will be the beginning of a long, hard slog. Their first tasks: renovating the toilets and making sure shareholders know they still have to queue to be served.