Camra: support Sustainable Communities
The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) has urged MPs, councils and the public to throw their full weight of support behind the Sustainable Communities Act to help stop pubs closing.
Camra chief executive Mike Benner chaired a Parliamentary meeting to discuss the Act on Tuesday evening.
Guest speakers Oliver Letwin MP and Julia Goldsworthy MP were joined by around 200 members of the public.
The Act enables councils and their communities to get Government help to reverse the decline of local services and amenities such as pubs, post offices and bus services, as well as help dealing with fuel poverty, protecting the environment and obtaining greater involvement in civic activity.
However, there is no statutory duty for councils to sign up to the Act.
"The meeting was a huge success and the enthusiasm for this revolutionary Act of Parliament was clear," said Benner.
"The Act draws a line in the sand, replacing top-down consultation with bottom-up governance through co-operation and reaching agreement.
"For the first time the Government must assist local authorities in developing sustainable communities and 'open the books' so local people can see how centrally allocated funds are spent in their area. Local people know best what their communities need and now they will be empowered through this Act."
Camra is confident that the Act will help pubs and small breweries a-like.
"The Act defines pubs as local services and we are pushing for agreement on proposals to protect community pubs from closure through an end to restrictive covenants, often put on pubs to prevent them trading as pubs after they are sold.
"We are also seeking to address changes to planning law to require full planning permission before a local service such as a pub is changed to a non-community use or demolished, as well as a more favourable rating system for small local services."
Benner added: "The key task right now is to encourage councils to sign up to the process, as there is no statutory duty upon them to do so. People need to write to their councillors, council leaders and MP to get their support."
