A Significant Milestone in our Journey to reopen the Hare and Hounds Inn as a community pub!
Statement from the WACA Board — April 2026
The Board of Wadsworth Area Community Assets (WACA) has formally resolved to proceed with investigating the community purchase of the Hare & Hounds, Old Town, for operation as a community freehouse pub. This decision is founded on a substantial and consistent body of evidence that the community of Old Town and the surrounding Wadsworth area wishes to see this pub saved, reopened, and sustained as a community asset.
That evidence is both broad and deep. Across multiple independent channels — including a validated online petition of over 1,265 signatures, two rounds of public consultation meetings attended by more than 260 people in total, an anonymous questionnaire showing 93.3% support for proceeding with a purchase, over 320 formally verified planning objections to the proposed change of use, and an earlier online survey returning 98.4% support for protecting the pub — the community has spoken clearly and consistently.
That mandate has been independently corroborated. Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council formally listed the Hare & Hounds as an Asset of Community Value in March 2026, recognising its importance within the statutory planning framework. WACA has received written support from local councillors, Wadsworth Parish Council, the majority of local community groups, CAMRA, neighbouring local pubs — both privately and community-owned — and local businesses.
WACA operates as a Community Benefit Society within the established frameworks provided by Co-operatives UK and the Plunkett Foundation, both of which exist specifically to support communities undertaking exactly this kind of project.
We are grateful to every member of this community who has made their voice heard — through petitions, surveys, planning objections, public meetings, and messages of support. The mandate we carry into this next stage belongs to you. We will pursue it with care, transparency, and determination.
You can read the full Proposal here
We have some really good news to share!
WACA is now in positive and constructive dialogue with the current owners of the Hare and Hounds Inn.
We have registered our interest with CMBC to work with the community to put together a bid to purchase.
Over 120 people attended our Consultation Meetings. We’re collating the responses to our Questionnaire and will report back on what we plan to do next.
At the end of March, we were contacted by Rory Deighton, the owner of the Hare and Hounds Inn, who let us know that he has triggered the Community Right to Bid process with Calderdale and will soon be putting the property up for sale. This is a very positive step for us and we thank him for his offer to open discussions with WACA over a community purchase of the pub.
After a quickly arranged emergency Board Meeting, as you would expect we responded positively to set up a meeting, and we have also formally expressed an intention to bid for the property with Calderdale.
Representatives of the WACA Board have now met with Rory, and agreed Heads of Terms – a nonbinding agreement providing a framework for constructive negotiations. We are very pleased to announce that the 2 parties are now in constructive and positive discussion.
You can find our more about the Community Right to Bid process, and see the live Hare and Hounds Inn listing at new.calderdale.gov.uk/communities/community-facilities-and-activities/community-right-bid
We are looking for members and volunteers, and we’ll soon be sharing our plans for how people can get more involved.
We recognise that the process of community fundraising and public campaigning can involve strong views. WACA is committed to ensuring that all such activity is conducted in a positive and respectful manner at all times, and trusts that all supporters of WACA and members of the wider community will do the same.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do get in touch with us at info@WACACoop.org.uk and we’d be happy to discuss any aspect of this project with you.
What next:
• Become a Member of WACA – we will send out information on this before our AGM, which is on 19th May.
Key Dates (live version to be found on CMBC Community Right to Bid webpage):
2nd March 2026: Hare and Hounds Inn listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) following WACA’s application under the Community Right to Bid legislation
27th March 2026: CMBC received a Disposal Notification from current owner, triggering the Community Right to Bid moratorium
31st March 2026: CMBC received an Intention to Bid notification from WACA
8th May 2026: End of 6 weeks moratorium for community groups to state an Intention to Bid
27th September 2026: End of 6 months moratorium for community groups to make a bid to purchase
Please join our mailing list on our Contact page if you would like regular updates
The Hare and Hounds Inn, how the story started……
When we heard the Hare and Hounds at Lane Ends was for sale back in July, the WACA Board agreed we should investigate the risk of the pub and B&B ceasing to be a going concern, so we met with the agent who showed us around.
At the time, we had been reassured that it was very likely that the pub would be sold as a going concern, but we are now aware that it has been sold, and a Change of Use application has been submitted to Calderdale Council Planning Department. We’ve set up an initial consultation to guage support in WACA challenging this (you can still respond here if you’ve not already done so), and have received very positive feedback in the vast majority of responses. As a result, at the end of 2025, we submitted a Community Right to Bid application to register the Hare and Hounds Inn as an Asset of Community Value, as an initial statement of intent to challenge any Change of Use applications.
As of Tuesday 13th January the Change of Use application has gone live and appears here on the Calderdale Planning Portal. So now the clock is ticking, with a deadline for objections of Tuesday 3rd February.
Following more than 315 responses to our online survey, with an overwhelming 98.4% support for WACA to take action, we have been researching and collating evidence. We believe we can make a very powerful objection to the Change of Use application, evidencing what we already know – that the Hare and Hounds Inn would, indeed, make a viable and successful community pub.
Thanks to all who attended out public meetings.
About 140 people in total attended, which shows great local support for our fight to save the Hare and Hounds Inn.
Here you can read WACA’s Objection against Change of Use.
Please join our mailing list on our Contact page if you would like regular updates.
If you’d like to get more involved or have suggestions for WACA to follow up please get in touch by email to info@WACAcoop.org.uk