Thursday 20th November 2014

A campaign has been mounted in a Chesterfield village by residents who hope to save one of their popular locals from being closed - and being re-opened as a convenience store.



The Wellington Pub, on High Street New Whittington, (above), is described by campaign leader, Viky Muddiman, as the 'hub' of the community - a place where people go not only to drink, but for food, company and support.

The award-winning pub, which is currently part of the Marston's group, serves food and real ales, but also delivers meals to elderly and infirm residents in the community and has an enclosed beer garden that is a popular place for families in the summer months.

The pub is believed to be closing in 2015 and will be taken over by the Co-op.

"This," says Viky - a regular at the pub, "will not only create a hole in the community but will also destroy other businesses in a busy village which already has a good supply of shops, including an existing convenience store, a butcher and corner shop, who are all behind the campaign and believe their trade will suffer if the closure goes ahead."

She has mounted a social media petition which currently stands at nearly 500 signatures and is asking Marstons to reconsider their plans for the pub, which employs 9 people from the village.

A public meeting is scheduled at the Wellington with local MP Natascha Engel (left), at 7pm on Thursday 27th November, which Viky hopes will galvanise more support to save a valuable community resource.

Viky says the support for the petition has been, "Overwhelming!", adding, "The whole village is behind us. It's a valuable asset to the community - a family run business by village people. People come here to congregate in many different formats, it's not just eating and drinking - a lot of elderly who can't, or don't cook for themselves come here and they also send meals out to various incapacitated residents.

"People with learning disabilities are brought here and they feel safe and welcome here and have full disability access. There are pool and darts teams here - where are they going to play?

"It's been a feeling of shock in the village as it's an asset. It's not doing poorly, it's pulled through the recession and we have live music, kids parties - it's a popular place to come. There is a couple that had their wedding reception here 40 years ago and they wanted their 40th anniversary party here next August - we need to keep it open for them."

The message to Marston's from the village is - "If this pub closes, a lot of other pubs will close, as there will not be the variety here. Please don't shut this pub - we love it and can't do without it, we want it to stay open!"

Please sign the petiton at https://www.change.org/p/marston-s-brewery-keep-our-pub-as-a-pub

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