| Topic: | Re:The Packhorse and Talbot is to be demolished! | |
| Posted by: | Phil Joseph | |
| Date/Time: | 08/08/14 21:59:00 |
| Can I just make a few things absolutely clear (which some of those with more reactionary and less informed views may wish to mull over): Spirit Group (the company that owns Taylor Walker pubs) is a LEASEHOLDER of the property with an extant lease on the property; It is the FREEHOLDERS who are proposing demolition of the property; The current operation of the pub appears viable for Spirit Group and there is no question of it closing or being demolished on those grounds even if Spirit Group had been the freeholders - plenty of people are 'using it' so absolutely no need to 'lose it'; Yes, the pub has some architectural value and makes for a more interesting and diverse High Road; BUT The pub employs many staff directly and supports employment more widely (it doesn't take too many pubs to close before brewers, draymen and the like have to be made redundant); and The pub is the HOME to a number of staff who, given one month's notice, have no alternative housing arrangements. So what do we actually have here: a corporate who: Have no regard for the current business operating from the site they own the freehold to; Have no regard to the community asset that the pub offers to locals, visitors, tourists and the like (no £20 breakfasts here, but all quite affordable and drinkable/edible); Wish to see several (or could be many) staff lose employment and have to call on taxpayers to potentially support them financially; Will potentially make homeless a number of existing staff who live on site; and Wish to replace the pub with flats/apartments which can only be afforded by oligarchs or investors who will have doo-diddly interest in the area (you really think any hypothetical spending potential of any putative tenants would outweigh the human/financial disadvantages?). Much like the Morrisons advert - I like this pub; and I like that pub (I really am quite ecumenical in my choice of drinking holes). I like the choice that Chiswick offers for pubs to suit all tastes, needs and wallets. By allowing this pub to be demolished through a failure to act you devalue Chiswick, you devalue your community and you devalue yourselves. Oh, and as an aside, did anyone spot that the official notice hasn't actually been signed (in any term I would understand) making it invalid under sub-paragraph A.3 of the relevant legislation? Perhaps I, and we all, are just the bait in a corporate fishing expedition to test local opinion as I originally surmised? Personally, I'd rather not take that risk. |