Communities to get the chance

to buy vital businesses

PEOPLE in Carlisle could soon be given the power totake over the running of the cirty’s struggling post offices, shops and pubs.

The Conservatives are planning a ‘Community Right to Buy’ which would give far-reaching new powers to people wanting to protect community assets from closure.

So if, as opinion polls suggest is likely, the Tories win the General Election expected in May, local people will be able to form voluntary groups to run businesses which at the moment are struggling to survive as commercial enterprises.

The move would be too late to protect the Milbourne Arms in Carlisle, which closed last week, or the three post offices in the city which closed under Post Office reorganisation in 2008.

But it could be in time to save the many other small businesses which are known to be still under threat.

John Stevenson, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Carlisle, says the idea is just what small businesses in the city need.

“Under Labour, local neighbourhoods in Carlisleand across the country have lost too many essential local services and facilities,” he says.

“The Government has closed post offices and driven local pubs into the ground. People feel powerless to stop their communities losing vital services and facilities. So the Conservatives will give bold new powers to help people protect and improve vital community assets and preserve the social fabric of our neighbourhoods.”

Under the Conservative proposals voluntary groups would have a right of first refusal to buy vital commercially-owned community assets when they shut down – for example, those post offices, pubs and shops whose continued survival is of genuine importance to the local community

Community groups, such as schools, churches or voluntary organisations would also have first refusal on any state-owned community assets – ranging from libraries to parks – if they can show that they could manage them more efficiently and effectively than the state.

New research has revealed that under Labour, 5,400 post offices, 200 libraries and 3,500 pubs have been lost across England in the past ten years.

Nine post offices have closed in Carlisle, with more than 30 across the rest of Cumbria.

And the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is warning that one in eight pubs – many of them playing a pivotal role in their communities - could close their doors by 2012.

ENDS