ABOUT THE PUB
The Oddfellows Arms started life as The Gardeners Arms, but its name changed by 1843 and it has been in existence ever since.
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The Parish Council sought an ‘Asset of Community Value’ (ACV) designation for the pub in recognition of its importance to the village as a community facility: the original pub building has been there since late 18th Century, and is an important heritage building in the conservation area of the village.
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The pub has been an important social focus for the community for generations and was popular with walking and cycling groups as well as hosting numerous village groups, such as the cricket club, and charity activities. The famous annual fireworks display brought people from far afield to the pub. The money raised at that event was used in part to provide Christmas meals for the older members of the community.
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A published report by the Unlocking Pubs Potential report by the wonderfully named All Party Parliamentary Beer Group highlights the important role pubs can play in community wellbeing. “Pubs need to be acknowledged for what they do in so many intangible ways to promote individual and community wellbeing.” (APPBG, 2020). There are numerous community pubs providing a wide range of services to their communities and the people of Higham on the Hill want ‘The Oddies’ to join them.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The ‘Save the Oddies Pub’ (STOP) community group are campaigning to save the last remaining pub in Higham on the Hill from being redeveloped into housing. The previous owner closed the pub in August 2018 and the group have been working on behalf of the community to save it ever since.
In early 2019 a community meeting voted to create a steering group to co-ordinate the community's efforts.
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The STOP Steering Group led a number of community consultation meetings which have shown the overwhelming desire of the community to keep the pub and create a focus for community activities. We want to create a community owned pub as a community hub, with support from the Plunkett Organisation and other such groups. As part of this process we established Higham CBS Ltd. The vision is for a community hub which provides much needed services and support for the local community. There are over 150 similar projects across the country that have used this model very successfully and we look forward to joining them.
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In the face of a deluge of objections from the community and the likelihood of refusal the developers withdrew their first two applications, they then had the third and fourth refused, but have since said they plan to appeal. We are awaiting the outcome of that one but continue to pursue a purchase.
Over the last 6 years we have worked alongside the Parish Council and have tried to engage with the developers and they have now offered to sell the pub to the community. We have had some discussions about the area under offer but we need them to complete the negotiations: the village want to buy the pub and facilities to provide a community hub that remains in the heart of the village.
