The respective teams behind two Nottingham pubs have reassured customers that they are not going anywhere. It comes after Nottingham City Council approved decisions to sell the freehold of The Navigation Inn, in Wilford Street at Castle Lock, and The Hole in The Wall, in North Sherwood Street.
Reviewing all council-owned assets was one of the key priorities of the latest Together for Nottingham Plan, as the council works to balance its books and find additional funds to stave off government intervention, in the form of commissioners. However, the teams who run the two pubs - who each lease the pubs from Admiral Taverns, which has 1,600 pubs across the UK under their operational umbrella - say they are not worried.
The owners of The Hole in the Wall, Drew Grimshaw and Chris Robertson, a pub which reopened last year, moved to reassure customers the pub is still trading. They said: "We want to reassure all our customers that we still going to be open and continue to trade for the foreseeable future.
Read more: 2 Nottingham pubs being sold off by the city council as it looks to balance books
"This auction will not affect the pub in any way until the lease with Admiral Taverns comes to an end. And there’s a fair few years to go before that happens."
The Navigation also continues to run as normal. Pub co-owner Jeanette Hill said: "It's led customers to believe that the pub is being sold or closed down and the situation at the moment is that it's not, it's a pub base that we are working on and it's going up trade wise. The pub is still trading as normal and it will not affect The Navigation for at all for a minimum of 15 years as that's how long the lease is."
A City Council spokesperson said: “Like many councils, we hold the freehold interest in various properties which means we aren’t involved in any operations on the sites but they bring in a regular rental income to the council. Some, like these, date back many years and as we are reviewing our property portfolio as part of our Together for Nottingham Plan, it’s been decided these properties are not providing the level of return we are looking for.
"We are therefore proposing to put the freehold of the sites up for sale at auction. Selling property and land that we own and no longer require is one of the ways we can bring money into the council at a time when our Government grant is drastically reduced, as well as helping us to reduce debt levels as part of our efforts to improve and become more efficient.
“As landowner, we’re aware that the Hole in the Wall pub is included on the register of Assets of Community Value and will ensure that all related requirements in respect of a sale are fully complied with.”
The council has just avoided commissioners being sent in as Government oversight continues on the improvements being made after issues including the misspend of £40 million and the collapse of Robin Hood Energy. An Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB) was appointed in January 2021 to closely monitor the decision-making processes and governance of Nottingham City Council, sending quarterly reports to the Government on the council's progress.
The Government uses the quarterly reports to determine whether it needs to send commissioners in to run the council. The Government said in its most recent decision that there had been a "step up in progress" at Nottingham City Council. But it added: "There is still much to do to deliver the level of service deserved by the residents of Nottingham."
Read Next:
