Dear WACA supporter,
We are writing to you, on this occasion, for a very specific reason.
WACA is applying to Calderdale Council to register the Hare and Hounds Inn as an Asset of Community Value. This creates opportunities for planning barriers against change of use, and gives the community a 6 month window to bid if/when it’s ever put back on the market.
We need your help to provide evidence of how the pub has served our community—please see below for details.
The Context
As you will be aware, the Hare and Hounds Inn at Lane Ends in Old Town was put up for sale last summer, and WACA representatives met the agent who showed us around. As we reported back in our last update, we recognised that purchasing the property would have been a very significant project for WACA, and we didn’t want to take on anything else until we were absolutely sure that the Post Office/café/shop provision was safe. We were reassured by the agent that it was very likely that the pub would be sold as a going concern. Our method of raising cash via a share offer launch would be time consuming and could not be wholly guaranteed until we could see how much money was raised by the community. So any offer from WACA would be highly unlikely to be accepted as we were told there were already potential cash buyers ready for a quick sale.
The Current Situation
The sale of Old Town Post Office looks very likely to be finalised in the New Year, and so WACA is now turning our focus to other things including the Hare and Hounds.
An Asset of Community Value (ACV) is a building or land whose main or recent use must further the social well-being or interests of the local community. Over our last few Board Meetings we have discussed applying to register the Hare and Hounds Inn as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) with Calderdale Council and we are now preparing to make our application.
Registering a building or land as an ACV has 2 effects:
1: If a property already on this list is put up for sale, the Community Right to Bid gives community groups a 6 month period to develop a bid to purchase it, although it does not prevent the owner from selling to someone else after that time.
2: Registering a building or land as an ACV can have a significant impact on any change of use application submitted by the current owners. In short, while an ACV listing doesn’t guarantee the change of use will be refused, it creates a substantial planning barrier and provides a powerful tool for a community society to influence the decision.
The first benefit listed above will only be relevant if/when the current owners put up the property for sale. However, we are currently unable to ascertain if the new owners are planning to reopen as a pub or to convert the property for other use, and so the second benefit of registering as an ACV might become a powerful tool to us in the future.
You can read more information about ACVs here.
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