Saving the Richmond

Jeremy Labram says:

Her’s the text of an email received just now from the ‘Save the Richmond Arms’ group.

A huge Thank You to everyone who attended the public meeting this week.

Around 150 people packed out St Stephens Church in Lansdown Road, Bath on Wednesday evening to meet and be addressed by the current owners of The Richmond Arms pub, Rupert Moreton and Jamie Rockman.

The audience was made up of people in the local residential community, regular customers of the pub, members of local groups and members of the local business community, all of whom are keen to see the pub open again. The meeting was also attended by the Mayor of Bath Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones and Deputy Mayor Councillor Dr Anthony Clarke, both of whom have been supporters of the campaign since 2013.

St Stephens church Rector Philip Hawthorn opened the meeting by saying ‘Lansdown is a lovely area but we sometimes struggle to find community places for people to be able to meet up and that community is about its people’

During the meeting Rupert and Jamie answered questions from the 150 strong crowd, with many people applauding the questions that were being asked, showing that many people had the same concerns.

The owners re-iterated that their ‘Plan A’ was to have the pub open and trading, but that it had to break even and cover their costs, and that ‘Plan B’ if it was proved to be unviable as a business, was to convert it into a house and sell it as an entity.

The overriding message was clear from the audience that the owners should first of all withdraw the current planning application for change of use, then actively market the pub to find suitable tenants, with a fair market rate rent, and to stay engaged with the community, who will work with them to ensure the pub is a success again.

Stay tuned for what happens next – the owners have said they will get in touch with everyone who attended personally, but The Save the Richmond Arms campaign group will continue to keep the community up to date with news as often as it happens. We will use this newsletter, our Facebook Page and the Bath Chronicle as the main channels for this.

Once again thank you for your support.

Jeremy Labram on behalf of Neill Menneer says:

Thoughts on Retaining The Richmond Arms as a pub

1) Within this group we all hope that we can somehow retain this special public asset as a pub. It is unique within Bath and has been a pub since the mid 19th century at least. Three other pubs in the locality have recently closed (Farmhouse, Belvedere, Rising Sun). From The Sack of Bath to the formation of The National Trust there have always been resistance to fast and market driven change to preserve well-loved buildings and institutions. The Planning process itself enshrines the idea that some buildings are best preserved as they are and is a counter weight to the idea that change must always be driven by the market and financial advantage. The present policy of creating ‘Community Assets’ which has already been applied to The Richmond also endeavours to find a middle way between development and other values like community cohesion.

2) The present owner bought the premises as a pub and paid considerably less for the building than if it had residential usage. The Planning process uses ‘classes’ to control undesirable development and have some element of control over The High Street, Green spaces or Office districts to name a few. Farmers for instance can’t build on their land, Shopkeepers can’t simply convert their premises to offices or flats.

3) The Unviable Argument: The owners assert that they have tried to run it as a pub both directly themselves and then latterly by renting the space. Neither they nor the last landlord had any substantial experience in running a pub nor had come from a hospitality background. Jeremy the last tenant was a lovely man with many fine qualities, but he was neither a good businessman nor a particularly reliable chef. He probably had no business or marketing plan and this weakness led to many failings including poor pricing, inconsistent offerings (sometimes food wasn’t even available) and most particularly a lack of customers. The inability for the owners to create a viable business therefore is more due to their own failings than any intrinsic weakness in the location. Apart from everything else Jeremy was paying a very high rent which compounded his difficulties. Clearly the pub is absolutely viable at some point on the rental curve. Jeremy certainly was at the unprofitable end and frankly his signing a long lease under these terms was another instance of his business naivety.

4) Return on Investment: The owners assert that they ‘must’ charge at least £24k rent to cover their costs. This is the wrong way to look at business pricing. A business must charge what customers are willing to pay. The owners are finding it difficult (impossible?!) to rent out their pub at this rate. I’m not surprised as not only are the premises going through repairs with inappropriate and unrealistic plans for a kitchen, but the accommodation is very substandard. The premises also have a planning application for another non-pub usage hanging over it. The owners assert that they must charge this rent to make it viable for themselves. However, this is only true due to their personal circumstances and the price they paid for the property. It is hard to accept (by them!) that they have paid too much for this pub, but this is the only conclusion. If they’d paid less, they wouldn’t need to charge such a high rent to cover their mortgage etc

5) The solution to the owner’s problem and our desire to preserve the pub can only I believe be one of two options. 1) Lower the rent or 2) Sell the property so that a new owner can reconfigure the viability of the figures. The new owners might well pay less than the present owners paid for it themselves and they would at that point convert their paper loss to a realised loss. Lowering the rent would also I appreciate cause pain, but a realistic rent given the circumstance of the pub’s location, drinking and eating habits, consumer behaviour etc is the only way to nurture the pubs existence. Rent free periods/ staggered rents and profit share can all be useful instruments in both obtaining a tenant and in time giving a good return to the owner. It is crucial I think to give the tenancy to a keen business-savvy professional with experience of both management and hospitality to run the pub. The biggest incentive for him, her or them (it would suit a husband and wife team) is the accommodation above the pub but this needs to be attractive, clean and practical and therefore requires further investment. Once again if this is not possible or desirable by the present owners then option 2 is looking more suitable. Unfortunately, and personally I don’t believe that this demanding job can be done by volunteers with little or no ‘skin in the game’! Might be wrong and would love it if it were possible but I think it’s idealistic.

6) The only way any of the above becomes possible is if the present application for change of use is withdrawn. The main owner at the St Stephens meeting indicated that he was in favour of this if he could persuade his fellow partners to agree.

7) If the application is not withdrawn, then we can only look to the council to refuse planning permission on the basis of ‘Community Asset’ or just plain refusal given the strength of feeling and need to preserve at least some heritage pubs in the area. At some point the public need to stand up to the market forces that have reduced villages to mere dormitory functions to preserve our heritage and way of life that encourages and allows vital non-digital community interaction
8) Clearly The Richmond Arms has many challenges but given the support from the local community and the professed determination of the owners to make it work I’m sure it could have a viable future. Many Camden residents met regularly on A Friday night for over a year as part of the Firsty Friday Club and we will I’m sure be more than happy to continue this tradition if and when the business opens and provides excellent food and drink at the right price and in the right manner.

Neill Menneer, Camden Resident 19.09.18.

Jeremy Labram says:

I did not get there – Suggest any more comments etc get put onto the subsequent post ‘Hope for the Richmond’. J