By Charlotte Wooldridge | posted on December 11, 2020
BROOMEHILL residents are rejoicing as their local watering hole has been given another chance at life after a band of community members signed contracts to purchase the building.
Grain and sheep farmer Scott Thompson brought together the Broomehill Village Co-Operative last October after community consultation highlighted the demand for a local pub.
“The roadhouse closed several years ago and we coped with that, but I could tell people did not like the pub shutting down,” Mr Thompson said.
“The owners left in May last year and just walked out the door.
“It just got too hard I think, they’d built up a fair debt and just walked out the door and put it on the market, but it was pretty lacklustre the way they did it all.”
Since then, the six-per- son Co-Op has managed to draw in 75 members to pledge money towards the purchase and refurbishment of the building.
“The exteriors of the building will be painted, and some external landscaping will be done too,” Mr Thompson said.
“The internals just need to be a lot better standard before we open the doors.”
Mr Thompson said without a service like the Imperial Hotel Broomehill, the town could face serious repercussions down the line.
“The Henry Jones Café and the post office are for sale, and I think without that pub up and running it would be hard to sell the post office and I could see that that was probably the end,” he said.
“Then hypothetically in another 20 years’ time, even less, it could be the end of the school.”
With the settlement due around Christmas and future plans to open the 22 rooms as accommodation for travellers, Mr Thompson said the pub venture wouldn’t be opening until the new year.
“We’ve got a design team in there now just working out where to spend money and what’s a priority so when we do open the doors it will be a lot fresher look,” he said.
“We’re not just going to open for the sake of it.”
