Sawt Falasteen - Villagers win race to save UK pub, as thousands close

Fast forward to 2025 and laughter rings out of the newly reopened watering hole after locals clubbed together to save it.

The pub, which first opened in the 1830s, is one of tens of thousands across the UK forced to call last orders over recent years.

Once the heart of the village, the Radnor Arms -- which had become uneconomic due to rising costs -- was shut by the landlord in 2016 and quickly fell into ruin.

For locals in the picturesque south Wales village of New Radnor, population 438, the demise of their only remaining hostelry was devastating.

Over the years, there were around six or more pubs or ale houses in the village. By 2012, all except the Radnor Arms had shut down.

"It was the heart of the village," said David Pyle, a 57-year-old retired psychiatrist who has lived next door to the pub for the past 18 years.

"Sometimes you could hear a bit of hubbub, sometimes you'd hear a roar go up when Wales scored, or a male voice choir singing in the back bar," he told AFP.

"It was just lovely," he said. "And then it closed."

- British tradition -

UK pubs, a quintessential cornerstone of community life, are increasingly under threat.

Faced with changing drinking habits and spiralling bills, more than a quarter of the 60,800 in existence in 2000 have closed their doors in the past 25 years.

Of the 45,000 still operating at the end of last year, 378 -- at least one a day -- are expected to close this year, according to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).

The loss of Radnor Arms in 2016 left the village without a focal point, hitting everyone from hobby groups to local hill farmers who would meet there after work for a pint of beer and a chat.

"It was the heart of the community. It was a place where anybody could come in," said Sue Norton, one of a team of locals who banded together to save it.

"We celebrated births, deaths and marriages here. So for us, it was very emotional when it closed," she said.

Vowing to rescue it, Norton and other villagers applied to a government scheme aimed at giving people the financial firepower to take ownership of pubs or shops at risk of being lost.

A major fundraising effort last year drummed up £200,000 ($271,000), which was matched by the community ownership fund and boosted by an additional £40,000 government grant.

With £440,000 in the kitty, the villagers were able to buy, refurbish and re-open the pub, relying on a rota of volunteers to work behind the bar rather than paid staff.

Ukrainian refugee Eugene Marchenko, a 44-year-old lawyer who is one of the volunteers, says the pub helped him meet practically everyone within days of arriving.

Marchenko, from the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, is being hosted by a villager along with his wife and teenage son. He said he quickly came to understand the importance of having a place in the village for "drinking and having fun together".

"I read in books that the pub was a famous British tradition, but I can feel it myself... It's not just about the drinking alcohol, it's about the sharing and everybody knows each other," he said.

- Lifeline axed -

The previous Conservative government launched the community ownership fund in 2021.

Under the scheme locals have successfully saved around 55 pubs, according to the community ownership charity Plunkett UK.

The pubs are run democratically on a one-member, one-vote basis by those who contributed to the fundraiser.

But the new Labour government, which took power a year ago, dropped the scheme in December as they sought to meet competing funding demands.

Villagers in New Radnor are relieved to have got their application in under the wire but saddened that other communities will not benefit.

For now they are planning to make the most of their new community hub.

There are plans to host a range of activities -- from mother-and-baby mornings to a dementia group that aims to trigger memories through familiar sights and sounds.

Sufferers and their carers could come and have a "drink or a bag of crisps -- or a pickled onion, if people like those," Norton said.

E.Aziz--SF-PST