Fight to the bitter end

Thursday, 02 August 2012

Campaigners: Sue Ritchie and Emma Rigby outside The Woodman pub in Bourne Hill, Southgate

Campaign launched to save pub after last orders called

By Ruth McKee

A PASSING comment on a social networking site has launched a campaign to save a family-run pub from closure.

Publican Sue Ritchie posted on the site when she heard The Woodman, in Bourne Hill, Southgate, had closed, making it the second pub to shut its doors in the area in a month – following the Willow, in Winchmore Hill Road.

Ms Ritchie, who runs the Queen’s Head pub, in Station Road, Winchmore Hill, was so incensed by the news that she took to the Facebook group Love Your Doorstep, set up by Enfield entrepreneur Emma Rigby, and said: “Very sad news to see The Woodman in Southgate close its doors last night.

“That is two local, privately owned pubs closed in a month.”

She wrote the post on Sunday and within minutes comments flooded in from other people on the Facebook group.

Speaking to the Gazette about the campaign, Ms Ritchie said: “This group has brought the community together and we have to work to give this family who run the pub a chance of getting out of their financial crisis.”

The publican, along with other business owners who have joined the campaign, blamed the pub’s
perilous financial status on the “anti-competitive” practices of Marston’s, the brewery that owns it.

According to Ms Ritchie and Southgate businessman Richard Adams, who is a regular at the pub, the brewery escapes the pressures of the double-dip recession by charging inflated rents and high prices for the drinks they are obliged to buy from the brewery.

However, a spokesman from Marston’s: “We have been working with the tenants at The Woodman for some time to resolve issues within the business.

“Unfortunately, this has not been as successful as we’d all hoped.

“We are not able to discuss private and confidential licensee matters, but continue to hope that we can reach a resolution with the tenants of The Woodman,” added the spokesman.

Campaigners are urging people to protest about the closure by signing the petition and are lobbying the brewery to renegotiate the terms of the leasehold with the current landlords.

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1 comments on this news item

Posted by : ray, finchley | Tuesday 28/Aug/2012 | Report this comment

Please we must save it first, used it over 55 years ago