Pubs raise over £101million for charity in 2010

A good headline there from a press release issued today from Pub Aid. This makes a change from the negative and invented stories about drinking put about by the fake charities such as taxpayer -funded Alcohol Concern and their bastard offspring Alcohol Concern Cymru. I doubt if the tabloids will be running these positive facts about our pubs so lets see them here.

Results from the survey:

• Over three-quarters of British pubs carry out charitable activities during the year
• The most popular annual charity sum raised was £500 (24%)
• However, two thirds raised £1000 or above
• The top individual named charities are Help for Heroes and the Air Ambulance – accounting
for over half a million pounds of the money raised
• Projected estimates suggest that the Great British Pub raises over £100 million a year
for charitable causes
• Three quarters (74%) of respondents suggest that local charities have
benefitted specifically from their pubs donations
• Only 26% look to events on a national basis only - meaning community orientated
support is extremely important to the Great British Pub
•86% of pubs will be carrying out charitable activities in 2011
• The approx £101 million per year potentially raised by the Great British Puboffers a hugely positive story in the face of continued media pressure over ‘binge drinking’ and alcohol related violence
• The sense of community that the pub provides and the focus that charitable activities provide to this are sense as hugely important by many licensees

Community focused and charitable, isn't this what the 'Big Society' is supposed to be all about?

Following the announcement of the results at the British Institute of Innkeeping, Bob Neill MP commented:

"This survey clearly demonstrates the amazing support that many community pubs give to charities across the country.  It is particularly impressive to see that the average pub raises some £2,000 a year, highlighting a remarkably strong commitment on behalf of local people and landlords to help their chosen charities. It is also great to see that many of the fund raising activities that pubs have undertaken involve bringing local people together and sharing collective experiences through, for example, quiz nights, sports events and live music.  Creating a sense of community within pubs provides a number of benefits, not only allowing large sums of money to be raised for charity, but also providing important local social hubs and ensuring the popularity of this great British institution.
I would like to thank all those landlords and patrons that have helped to demonstrate, once again, the positive contribution that community pubs can make to life in this country."

Lets see our pubs get the support they need, both from their customers and from the Government.

Pub is the Hub to help Welsh Pubs

A charity set up be Prince Charles is set to help up to 50 Welsh rural pubs. Pub is the Hub is looking to set up a Welsh office, possibly in an existing brewery (Brains? Felinfoel?) and support from the Prince will fund two employees in Wales for two years allowing the organisation to identify 50 pubs to be regenerated.

The Prince will announce details of the grants to be awarded under his new Countryside Fund on Thursday.

John Longden from Pub is the Hub said, “It's great news for Wales,” he said. “We will use our expertise to lobby government and local authorities for grants to be made available. We will have two part-time project managers that will build up a shopping list of projects and once a “priority list” of 50 pubs was compiled, Pub is the Hub would turn to the Welsh Assembly Government and local authorities to fund the projects". He estimated each pub would require around £10,000 to regenerate it.

“This is a positive step forward in seeing if rural pubs in Wales can support community services in a really strong way,”he continued, “It's great to get continued support form the Prince often our funding is patchy.”
Pub is the Hub has undertaken three projects so far in Wales, all of which have been in the Denbighshire area in conjunction with the local authorities.

Elsewhere, in Scouseland, PM David Cameron has launched his 'Big Society' plans which includes giving local communities the chance to save their threatened pub. No more details at the moment and it looks like this will only be trialled in England.