MP calls for more support for community pubs

Villagers from Grizebeck met local MP Tim Farron as he poured their pints last Friday evening at the Greyhound Inn. Tim Farron had come along to support the efforts that are being put in by a team of local volunteers to keep their local pub open.

The Greyhound was recently taken over by the local community in January to try to save it from closure - a fate that has overtaken far too many village pubs up and down the country. Tim, who is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Save our Pub Group, is championing of rural businesses, including pubs and trying to make sure that government help the rural economy in these tough economic times.

Tim chatted to members of the Greyhound steering committee and went behind the bar to pull a couple of pints. He also got the chance to sample the home-made sticky toffee pudding, which seemed to go down very well and was good preparation for the 16km sticky toffee pudding race which he was due to run the next morning!

Tim stated: "The village pub should be at the heart of the community, a place to meet and chat to people that otherwise you might just see around and wave to occasionally. It helps to keep up the community spirit of the place. I know that other pubs have been taken over by local people and been successfully preserved.

"I'd like to think that what is happening at the Greyhound might serve as something of an inspiration to other villages in Cumbria that risk losing the hub of their community."