Welcome to your CAMRA Branch Update. Spring is here, flowers are opening, but unfortunately pubs and breweries are closing. CAMRA, however, continues to campaign to try and bring a little sunshine into beer drinkers’ lives.
Branch Meeting
The March branch meeting will take place at the Ukrainian Social Club, 99 Castle Street, Bolton, BL2 1JP this Thursday, 5 March, at 8.00 p.m. If you haven’t already voted online you will be able to vote for the Pub of the Year, Cider Pub of the Year and Club of the Year at the meeting. All are welcome to come along to the meeting, but only members can vote.
Sharp’s Doomed
Well it may have taken longer than anticipated, but Molson Coors have announced the imminent closure of Sharp’s Brewery of Rock in Cornwall. Coors took over Sharp’s in 2011 to get their hands on its flagship brand, Doom Bar, and managed to turn it into the country’s best selling cask brand, putting £20m of investment into the brewery in the process. Unfortunately, owing to cost saving changes to the recipe, they also managed to turn it into a beer many drinkers avoid. Now, Coors have concluded that brewing in Cornwall is no longer sustainable and the brewery will close with the loss of 50 jobs. Doom Bar will presumably join lots of other ‘local’ brands being brewed at Coors’ giant brewery in Burton-on-Trent.
Sadly, Sharp’s is joining a long list of cask breweries we have lost recently with Caledonian, Jennings, Ringwood, Banks’s and Wychwood all having disappeared.
Planning Ahead
Pubs are not well protected in the current planning system. In the National Planning Policy Framework, there is a duty on local authorities to guard against the loss of leisure facilities, including pubs. You will have been asked recently to write to your MP about proposed changes to this limited protection. The government’s proposal is to put in place better protection but this would apply only to the last pub in an area. This would leave all the other pubs vulnerable to being converted to flats or other uses. There is no indication of what constitutes an ‘area’ so that could in theory be the whole of Bolton. Maybe we should carry out a survey to find out what CAMRA members think ought to be the last pub in Bolton. 2600 members have already written to their MP about this issue and if you haven’t already, you can still do so here.
From CAMRA’s prespective, we are fortunate in Bolton to have three MPs who are very supportive of our position on pubs, clubs and breweries. The MPs have been willing to meet with us to understand what issues are of concern to beer drinkers in Bolton and have taken positive steps to speak to the government on our behalf, including asking questions in Parliament. We have already seen how the influence of local MPs can bring about changes in policy on matters such as business rates. Let’s hope they can do the same on this planning issue.
Keeping It Local
Bolton Council, on the other hand, seems a little less receptive to these concerns. As I mentioned in my last update, CAMRA has submitted objections to the change of use of some pubs in the branch area as it believes that losing a community hub is an important decision. The Council has a duty to guard against the loss of community facilities and, to my mind, this means that if someone wants to close a pub, the Council should think seriously about the impact of the loss of the pub on the local community before granting permission to change its use. CAMRA’s concerns, however, have often been disregarded on the basis that there are other pubs nearby. When the Cotton Tree on Prince Street closed in 2024, the Council concluded that the community needed a nursery more than a pub and that there were other pubs in the area anyway. We have now heard that the Royal Hotel, the nearest pub to the former Cotton Tree, is to close. Which ‘nearby’ pub will the customers from the Cotton Tree and the Royal be expected to frequent now? Neither of the pubs served cask ale but nevertheless they do serve an important role in their communities. Not all pubs appeal to the same type of customer and the next ‘nearby’ pub may be of a completely different type. These factors should all be taken into account before permission is given to change the use of a pub.
Socials
Wigan Beer Festival takes place this coming weekend, from Thursday 5 until Saturday 7 March at Ribin Park Leisure Centre. A delegation from Bolton CAMRA will be heading to the festival on Friday afternoon if you would like to join them.
We will be having another outing to Wigan on Saturday 21 March to try some of the excellent pubs in the town centre. As always, details are available on the branch website here.
As winter recedes I hope that some of the difficulties our pubs faced during the cold dark months will also start to fade. This will only happen if we get out to our locals and support them. I know prices are going up but we are lucky that Bolton and its neighbouring areas still have some of the cheapest and best beer in the country, particularly that brewed by our local breweries. Let’s get out there and make sure they don’t go the same way as the Cotton Tree and Sharp’s.
Cheers,
John Mitchell – Chair