December 2018 | Co-operative and Community Finance

December 2018

December 24, 2018

Award-winning garden co-op for disabled workers to open cafe

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On Christmas Eve an award-winning plant nursery, 60% of whose workers have disabilities, completed the purchase of Victorian lodge house which it plans to convert into a traditional tea room with the help of a loan from Co-operative & Community Finance.

For Bishopwearmouth Co-operative, in Sunderland, this was the perfect end to a very successful year when the relatively new business won the Social Enterprise Award at the Sunderland Echo Portfolio 2018 business awards.

The co-operative has been running a 5,200m2 garden centre near the city centre since April 2017. It also provides landscaping and floristry services. It offers work-based placements and volunteering opportunities to adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and enduring mental health needs. There are currently 16 employees with disabilities and 10 additional staff.

Buying the Victorian lodge house, which is adjacent to the garden centre, will allow Bishopwearmouth Co-operative to start a new income stream by running a traditional tea room for local residents and visitors to the garden centre and nearby crematorium.

“There is a lot of work to be done,” said managing director Shaun Donnelly. “New flooring, new wiring, new kitchen, new toilets and making the whole premises accessible. There is a lovely walled garden that needs landscaping. With luck the Tea Room should be open in June.”

The project has the full support of Sunderland City Council which has been nurturing Bishopwearmouth for many years. It had been operating ‘at arms length’ from the local authority since 2009 but in March 2016 it took the important step of registering as a co-operative community interest company.

“We want everyone to feel that they have ownership of the venture and have a say in what happens,” said Shaun. “We want to have a good cross section of the staff on the board. Also we want it to be a lasting asset to the community.”

Ian Rothwell, Investment Manager at Co-operative & Community Finance, said “When I visited Bishopwearmouth I was struck by how passionate everyone was about their work and also about being part of a co-op. It is a great example of the positive effect of giving workers of all abilities an equal say.”

[pictured at the Sunderland Echo Portfolio 2018 business awards on 1 November 2018, (from left) Shaun Donnelly, Nicola McDonald and David Hider from Bishopwearmouth Co-operative and Paul McEldon, chief executive of North East Business and Innovation Centre.]

December 6, 2018

New £2.2m Funding Announced for Community Run Pubs

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Co-operative & Community Finance welcomes the announcement of a new funding programme that will build on the success of the More Than a Pub programme launched in 2016. Co-operative & Community Finance is one of the key partners in the current programme that has introduced tens of thousands of people to the benefits of community ownership.

Business Development Manager Tim Coomer said: “We are delighted by this news, and look forward to working with the partnership in the spring of 2019 to design and develop a programme that builds on the great things that have been achieved so far.”

Here is the press release issued by Plunkett Foundation:

New £2.2 Million Funding Announced for Community Run Pubs

A major new funding programme from Power to Change has been announced to help communities seeking to save their local pub through community ownership. Speaking at Plunkett’s Rural Community Ownership Awards in London yesterday (5 December 2018), Vidhya Alakeson, Chief Executive of Power to Change, made the exciting announcement that will see many more communities across England take control of their local pub with the support of community business experts, Plunkett Foundation.

This funding builds on the success of the current More Than a Pub programme, which is jointly funded by Power to Change and Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, led by Plunkett Foundation in collaboration with Key Fund, Co-operative and Community Finance, The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), Co-operative Mutual Solutions, Pub is the Hub, Locality and the British Beer and Pub Association. To date, the More Than A Pub programme has supported 190 communities and seen 26 pubs open their doors under community ownership since 2016.

The community pub sector is not only thriving, it is bucking wider negative industry trends. Almost a quarter of privately-owned pubs has shut down since 2008, but community pubs have a 100% success rate.

Opening a pub under community ownership not only protects a valuable asset but also brings a wealth of social benefits and improves the wellbeing of local people, including those who socially excluded or isolated in the wider community in particular. Community pubs offer a range of services ranging from retail and post office, social clubs and volunteering opportunities.

The new programme will be active from Summer 2019 with further details to be announced in Spring 2019. This announcement indicates the commitment and support from both Power to Change and Plunkett to create a thriving community pub sector.

96 communities have already successfully opened their local pub under community ownership of their local pub, and many more currently working with the More than a Pub Programme have been listed as ‘assets of community value’ under community rights, highlighting the important role that pubs play in local communities.

Vidhya Alakeson, Chief Executive of Power to Change, said: “Community-run pubs are so valuable to the people who use them, offering a huge range of crucial services including lunch clubs for vulnerable people, training and development, gardening and cooking classes and parenting groups. The More than a Pub programme we have run with Plunkett has been an enormous success so it was a natural decision for us to continue to support this thriving and much-loved sector.”

James Alcock, Executive Director of Plunkett Foundation, said: “This announcement is an endorsement of the role community pubs play in creating thriving communities and will strengthen the community pub sector by providing further support for those working to the tide on pub closures. For many, pubs are not just a place to drink; they are central to peoples’ sense of place and identity, they provide an important space for people to meet and help to build community cohesion.”

Community Pubs Minister Jake Berry said: “Pubs have and will continue to be at the very heart of our communities. The More Than a Pub programme is a fantastic example of communities taking ownership of their local assets, and it’s great to see Power to Change supporting their innovative work for another year. I look forward to the continued partnership work in boosting the ever important agenda of empowering our local communities.”