Staff seek cash to buy much-loved music pub

http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?storycode=64694

This case is exemplary at every level of what is wrong with pubcos and their shamefully laggard practices. Enterprise will try to realise the most it can from the sale of this asset. They have no interest in retaining the venue as going concern. They quite simply are not prepared to invest in the fabric of this remarkable building they own. This is the default position of pubcos - 'we never invest in our property - the tenants to do all of that'. The area around the Cooperage has moved on while perennial lack of investment in this historically important building has left the venue years behind contemporary reality, unable to carry out the business it has plied for decades - as a business set for provision of beer and entertainment to thousands of people who love congregating there - because of its unique, idiosyncratic and lively character. There is nothing complicated here: The Cooperage does not work because it needs investment; plain and simple. IF The Cooperage had been able to move with the times by being sporadically invested in - it would still be a thriving venue and there would be no article about its demise. The Freeholder is directly responsible for this situation. The Freeholder will say the decades of neglect are due to underinvestment and neglect by poor lessees who have not run the business profitably and who should be weeded out because they are not up to the job of meeting the demands of the excessive rent and ridiculous beer prices the Freeholder forces upon them. Any campaign to save this rare oddity from oblivion should be promoted and supported widely. It should be used as a case study in sustaining communities and culture javascript:void(0)but in a building made fit for purpose with modern building regulations. IPPR might be interested in this?