Golden hour for pubs will be co-operatives – The Yorkshire Post says

it IS a timely tonic to the hospitality sector that one of York’s most historic pubs also holds the key to the industry’s future.

The Golden Ball is 250-years-old and can count Charles Dickens among its early patrons. Yet the venue also became a co-operative 10 years ago, making it the first city centre pub in Britain to be run by the local community.

Now The Plunkett Foundation, which supports such ventures, is reporting a surge of interest from a range of groups looking to take on the running of pubs and such like in this county.

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The reasons are two-fold – an appreciation that local managers will have better knowledge about the tastes of patrons than remote brewery chains, and an acceptance, on the part of the areas concerned, that pubs do still have a prosperous future if they can reinvent themselves as community hubs. Let’s raise a glass of this – and the future of all those pubs that now offer so much more than fine ale, food and a friendly Yorkshire welcome.

The Golden Ball is thriving in York as a community pub. Photo: Tony Johnson.The Golden Ball is thriving in York as a community pub. Photo: Tony Johnson.
The Golden Ball is thriving in York as a community pub. Photo: Tony Johnson.

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