Community liaison officer at Arkell's

Arkells Brewery has introduced a "ground-breaking" initiative to help save its rural pubs that are under threat of closure.

The Swindon-based brewery has appointed the UK's first brewery community liaison officer, Richard Turner, to help build links between rural pubs and their local communities.

The Kingsdown brewery appointed Turner to the post in March, when the Rose & Crown pub in Ashbury was seeking new licensees, and, after villagers were given the opportunity to get involved, Bill and Sandra Downes were installed at the pub last week. He is now working across pubs within the whole Arkell's estate.

Turner said: "It made people realise they were losing the only hub in the village and they suddenly made efforts to get more involved.

"We set up advisory steering committees so that if there were one or two pubs in danger of closing, anyone with an interest in village affairs could become involved in finding people to run the pub and put forward suggestions on what they wanted the pub to do.

"We hope that more people will be appointed in the same capacity as myself across the country. It has been a great success and I can see it happening more — it is going a long way to fostering the community into a place where people can share their ideas. What is a community without a pub?"

George Arkell, director at Arkell's, said: "Working with the villagers of Ashbury reinforced how important pubs are to their local communities, but sometimes it's easy to forget that those same pubs are businesses and need on-going support."