MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a year its been – challenging at times but still really encouraging in our campaign to get the pub back: the Appeal Hearing result was a big ‘win’, as the Inspector’s report outlining her reasons for dismissal included the requirement to preserve the heritage of the building and recognised the importance of the pub to the community. We hope to be able to report some significant progress in 2026 as a result!

We have continued to grow our team, recruiting Aimee with her marketing and social media expertise and Pat who brings financial expertise and life long links to the village having married a ‘local lad’! Aimee has produced some ‘shorts’ for our new YouTube channel – look out for more as we get into our new fund raising phase.

The Parish Council secured the Public Works Loan approval and the CBS has achieved the Community Shares Standard Mark ready for when we do our share issue. So we’re good to go!

We also featured in the ‘Community’ section and also on the front page of the Leicestershire CAMRA magazine. The local CAMRA groups have been really supportive and are looking forward to coming to the pub for some nice ales!

As a CBS we want to support activities in the community while we wait to get the pub. We helped the village book club, BYOB (‘bring your own book’ … unless its Christmas when it is also ‘bottle’!) to get a community library for the village. Look out for it sitting next to the bus shelter on Main Street. There is a wide range of books to choose from including children’s books. We welcome donations of books too. It’s already proving very popular. Let us know what you think!

In the coming months we’ll be doing some aware raising and fund raising events like quiz nights and socials. If you’d like to be involved let us know.

We enjoyed sharing in the Carols by Candlelight service this week – lovely way to get into the Christmas spirit, along with the fantastic Hopkins Brothers Charity Tractor Run which excelled again this year.

In the meantime, the whole ‘Oddies’ team would like to thank you for your ongoing support and wish you all a very happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Let’s hope that 2026 is our year!