A community meeting was held on Wednesday 2nd August at Capel Noddfa. Thank you to those who were able to attend. For those who were unable to make it, we have pulled together an update to keep you informed of progress to date and the next steps.
End of an era
On Sunday 30th July, the current owners of the Cross Inn, Angela and Wayne Phillips, closed the doors of the pub for the last time. Whilst it is disappointing that we have been unable to keep the pub open, we are very grateful to Wayne and Angela for keeping the pub open as long as they were able to.
Next steps:
We understand there are concerns that the pub has now closed and there is uncertainty regarding when it will reopen. The Y Cross Cas-lai CBS Committee are working extremely hard to ensure the pub can be purchased and re-opened as quickly as possible.
- Continue to liaise with Community Ownership Fund to ensure the grant is paid into the CBS account as soon as possible.
- Continue to undertake conveyancing and due diligence to enable the purchase of the pub to be completed as soon as possible
- Recruit and train required staff
- Obtain licences and certificates required to operate the pub.
- Undertake initial basic set up works required to enable the pub to reopen.
- Purchase any required furniture and equipment.
- Purchase stock for the reopening.
- Hold the launch party for rebranded pub (hopefully sometime in October)
- Hold consultation events regarding the major refurbishment programme.
- Undertake a major programme of refurbishment work (first half of 2024 during quiet trading period)
We are approaching a critical stage in this project, where we need to finalise all COF, conveyancing, and recruitment and training requirements. Our resources will be stretched to the limit over the next 6 to 8 weeks and our priority has to be to buy and reopen the pub in the shortest time frame possible.
We have investigated the potential option of leasing the pub on a temporary basis so that the pub can be reopened sooner. However, based on the significant amount of work and resources required in order to enable this to happen it is felt this is not an option we can taken forwards. We also have concerns regarding the impact that leasing would have on our finances and the ability to meet in our match funding requirements for the COF grants.
Community Engagement
We feel it is very important that we engage with key stakeholders to ensure we provide a pub and community hub which meets the needs of the community and wider service users. In order to assist us, please can you follow the link below to complete the survey.
Click here to complete the community survey
Here is a summary of the findings of the surveys received to date:
Future Events
Unfortunately, due to resources being focused on the purchase and reopening of the pub, we have had to postpone the Community Celebration which was scheduled for Sunday 13th August. This will be rearranged for a future date later this year.
We will be planning further events within the community and the details of these will follow.
The full committee would like to thank everyone for your continued support.
Y Cross, Calon Cas-lai