A meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday April 17 at Veryan Sports and Social Club to report back on plans for a community buyout of the Ship Inn at Portloe.

December – sale announced

In December 2024, after 100 years years of ownership, St Austell Brewery Ltd announced it was selling the Ship Inn at Portloe.

This caused concern amongst residents and users and as a result it was raised as an issue at the December meeting of Veryan Parish Council. It was resolved that a public meeting should be held at Portloe Church on December 30th.

First meeting

The meeting was attended by over 70 residents and property owners in the village. It was explained that the Ship Inn had been registered as an asset of community value and this gave the community a period of six months to make a bid to acquire the freehold ownership. It was agreed almost unanimously that this path should be followed.

A group of seven people with considerable business and community knowledge began to work up various strategies, looking at other situations where the community had taken over their pub, and working on business planning and liaising with the community on how it might wish to operate the pub in the future.

The group worked closely with the Plunkett Foundation, a charity that has been involved with many pub buy outs, who advised on various models for ownership.

Second meeting

A futher meeting was held in February at Veryan Sports and Social Club, chosen as a venue because it was able to provide, together with the Chaos Charity, an online webcast of the meeting to enable people throughout the country to log on and watch.

Further progress was outlined to those present and although it drew many questions and comments, the general feeling was again that the group should carry on working towards firm proposals for a community ownership bid.

Next meeting April 17

The next meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday 17 April at the Veryan Sports and Social Club when it is hoped that very firm proposals can be put forward and a full report on progress made so far can be given.

Parish Council Chairman, Luke Dunstone, said: “Although this is a new situation for us all, much has been learned by the group and it is determined to bring this project to fruition to benefit the community of Portloe and the wider Roseland for many years to come.”