Residents of Mursley Village, Milton Keynes, are fighting to save The Green Man pub.
Mursley residents have pledged to continue fighting to save their village pub, The Green Man in Main Street, which has served the local community for more than sixty years.
The pub was closed and boarded up back in October 2021.
The current owners have rejected two offers from the village to buy the pub and run it as a community business, despite it being granted the status of an Asset of Community Value by Buckinghamshire Council in 2020.
Duncan Jones, Mursley resident and Chairman of the Green Man Community Action Group, is concerned that the pub is being marketed as a development opportunity and may be misleading. “As an Asset of Community Value, getting a change of use will be particularly difficult, given the strong feelings in the village to keep it as a pub, and the site is not included in the proposed Mursley Neighbourhood Plan as suitable for development”, he commented.
“We have the financial pledges and support of the whole village for keeping it as a pub and community hub, and money raised early on in the campaign paid for a professional and independent valuation by a Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors who has undertaken 200 reports on public houses in the last 4 years.
"Our offers were based on his expert recommendations. Rural pubs are closing across the UK at a high level. There’s been a Green Man pub in one form or another on this site for over 150 years which makes us even more determined to go on fighting to save our pub for the community”, he added.
MKFM reached out to Greg Smith, MP for Buckingham, who is supporting the campaign: "Pubs are the backbone of local communities and hubs, where particularly rural communities, can come together.
" Since my election I have supported the Long Live the Local campaign and called on the Chancellor to cut beer tax to support pubs in our local communities. There are lots of village pubs in Buckinghamshire and they are vital to the local economy as well as having an important role in helping to bring our communities together.
"I will do everything I can to support Mursley residents fighting to save their village pub, The Green Man in Main Street, which has served the local community for more than sixty years."
