Merton Council's deciding to refuse consent for this important community amenity to be turned into mixed retail and residential use has my strong support.
The Council made the right decision - as
evidenced by the remarkable level of popular support that has grown
for keeping the pub for community use. This building should be remade
as a pub that is relevant to its customers and the community it
serves.
The Morden Tavern is not intrinsically
a failed pub... it is a business that has serially failed through
decades of chronic under-investment in the premises. Still
potentially viable pubs across the UK are suffering the same fate to
devastating effect on their communities many of whom have nowhere at
all to socialise, meet and commune.
For almost thirty years the national
pub estate has been under the tenure of private equity driven pubcos.
Pubcos' have delivered extraordinary financial returns by charging
thousands of lessees so much for the privilege of running their pubs
they've had nothing left to put back into the fabric of their
tenants' own, fully repairing and insuring business premises.
These companies' irrepressible lust for
extracting maximum profit from pubs with minimal investment has
systemically, permanently asset stripped Britain of a substantial
part of its unique heritage. This is a collective act of gross
short-term irresponsibility which should be regarded as nothing less
than a Cultural Crime. The grave consequence is that, along with
their last pubs, communities everywhere are in real danger of losing
their very Sense of Place.
The Morden Tavern holds a special place
for people from St Helier and the community beyond; it is the last of
the social amenities that were built for them. For decades People -
individuals, families, friends and neighbours used the pub for
Christenings, birthdays, weddings and funerals; meeting rooms, balls,
dances, Christmas and New Year. The pub would still be a vibrant
social hub and its community would still be using it if it had not
been run down through the bad management of its freeholders. They
want to come back to the pub, it's only circumstances that have kept
them away.
Irrespective of the pub's social,
cultural and heritage value there IS a strong business case for
keeping the pub as a pub - the active community group is proving this
while researching, consulting and scoping the pub's true potential
for great social impact and energising its community.
If the pub were sensitively restored to
be fit for purpose as a contemporary public house this building will
undoubtedly continue its long life as the focal point of a diverse
community, as designed when built.
I am a publican and have been a
personal license holder since 1986. I am a founder member of the Fair
Pint Campaign and have given evidence to Select Committees looking
into the relationship between Pubco's and tied pub lessees. In 2003 I
co founded SE5 Forum for Camberwell, the area I have lived and worked
for almost twenty years. I care passionately about pubs and the
various vital roles they can play in sustaining, building and
developing social capital and help create competent communities.
Planning comment 5 July
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