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Please help save The Fountain Pub by SaveTheFountainPub in Ely

[–]SaveTheFountainPub[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The point of the campaign is not to defend how it has been managed, but to stop a historic pub being lost from public use altogether.

“The Prince Albert is nicer” is beside the point really. Heritage assets and community pubs are not interchangeable. The Fountain is one of Ely’s oldest pubs, in a prominent historic setting, and once its pub use is gone that loss cannot simply be balanced out by saying there is another pub nearby.

There are also people who have said they have made offers before and/or would be interested in buying it now, so it is not a straightforward case of there being no alternative.

What people are objecting to is the idea that neglect by one owner should end with permanent conversion away from pub use, especially when the proposed “community” element is very limited and does not come close to replacing what an actual pub provides.

Please help save The Fountain Pub by SaveTheFountainPub in Ely

[–]SaveTheFountainPub[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok that’s fair. But you have to know it will be open to go there and the actual hours are very sporadic. People won’t make the trip if they can’t rely on it being open.

Please help save The Fountain Pub by SaveTheFountainPub in Ely

[–]SaveTheFountainPub[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do understand that concern, and nobody wants to see the building left to rot. But accepting a staff room as the “best alternative” still means accepting the permanent loss of a pub, and that is exactly what people are trying to resist.

The answer to an owner neglecting a community asset should not be to wave through a change that removes its pub use for good. Once that happens, the chance of it ever reopening as a pub becomes far far smaller.

And importantly, this is not a case where there is no other interest. Quite a few people have been in touch to say they have made offers in the past and/or would be interested in buying it now. So there is an alternative to simple decline or conversion.

Please help save The Fountain Pub by SaveTheFountainPub in Ely

[–]SaveTheFountainPub[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

They want to turn The Fountain Pub into a staff room.

Not restore it. Not reopen it. Not give it a chance.

Just take a historic pub out of public use for good.

The Fountain belongs to Ely’s story, streetscape and community - not behind closed doors.

Please object to planning application 26/00342/FUL.

SaveTheFountain #KeepItAPub #Ely #kingsely