Another week has passed and a lot more has happened on the road to getting the Tally Ho re-opened as a thriving pub. Following last week’s Extraordinary General Meeting of Littlehempston Parish Council (draft minutes available here), a huge amount of time and energy has been put into sending responses to the planning applications into South Hams District Council. We’re sure everyone who supports the Tally Ho wants to thank everyone else who’s helped by writing in, so we’re all very grateful to each other ! What a great community team to be a part of !!
The scale of our response seems to have rather overwhelmed SHDC with letters and e-mails often taking at least a couple of days to appear on their website. At the time of writing there are responses from at least 65 different people, as well as a petition signed by 56 people, but we think there are more in the pipeline. You can see all the responses to the application for the conversion of the Tally Ho into a private residence by clicking here, the responses to the listed building application for the Tally Ho here, and the responses to the application for change of use of the barn here.
It’s not too late to write in ! We’ve heard from SHDC’s Development Management department that, although the formal deadline for responses to these applications was Wednesday 24th October, you can still write or e-mail, and your response will be taken into account, right up until the decisions are made on these applications. So if you haven’t written or e-mailed yet and you’d like to support the Tally Ho, there’s still time – but you need to get on with it ! The same thing applies, of course, if you know someone else in the same position – encourage them to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard ! You’ll find lots of advice on how to make your response effective by clicking on the Tally Ho ! item on this website’s main menu (on your left) – or just click here.
Last week Lindy Collard-Baker contacted Phillip Saint (current owner of the Tally Ho) to see if a meeting could be arranged – basically just to keep a communication channel open. As a result Lindy, Bee Criddle and Mike Thomas met Phillip Saint and his wife Elizabeth, and their planning agent Steven Bottomley at the Tally Ho last Monday evening (22nd October). Outcomes of the meeting were that the Tally Ho is still for sale, either as a package with the barn, or separately, and Phillip Saint would be happy for it to be sold to the community if that were possible. Lindy, Bee and Mike said they believed the community wanted to see the Tally Ho re-open as a pub as soon as possible.
On Thursday 25th October there was a meeting of the Rally Round the Tally Campaign team – which is not quite as formal or organised as it sounds ! It’s the group that got together (with a couple of changes) to help publicise the Extraordinary Parish Council meeting, and to provide advice at the second part of that meeting on how best to respond effectively to the planning applications. Five people got together on Thursday: Lindy Collard-Baker, Bee Criddle, Neil Kelly, David Melland, and Mike Thomas. We made a few decisions:
- Our aim is: “To see the Tally Ho re-opened as a thriving pub at the heart of the village”.
- We would like to see the Tally Ho registered with SHDC as an Asset of Community Value under the Localism Act 2012.
- We will investigate community owned pubs, co-operatives etc. to see what possible ways forward there are towards a community purchase.
- We will contact several organisations that seem likely to offer help and advice to help get the Tally Ho open again
The Rally Tally team are very anxious that they should have the backing of the wider community that supports the Tally Ho. That community appeared very united at last week’s Extraordinary Parish Council meeting, and has done so again in the responses that have gone to SHDC. So if you want to be involved in any way: offering help, advice or expertise; asking us to do something else (or not do something); or if you want to join us – please get in touch. And if you don’t like what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, or you disagree with us – please tell us that too.
November’s regular Parish Council meeting has been brought forward to next Monday 29th October (19.45 in the Church) so that the PC can agree their responses to the planning applications and submit them to SHDC before a final decision is made. Parish Council meetings are public, so a few Tally Ho supporters there wouldn’t go amiss.
Here are some links to other websites that look as if they’ll be useful to the Rally Tally campaign:
- The Plunkett Foundation – Co-operative pubs
- Pub is The Hub
- CAMRA – Local pub campaigns
- Community Shares
- Village SOS – Saving Your Village Pub
If you want to be kept up to date with the Rally Round the Tally campaign to get our pub re-opened, you can subscribe to the Rally Round the Tally e-mail list by clicking here.
And finally… There’s another pub called the Tally Ho! in Hungerford Newtown, West Berkshire. In July this year, West Berkshire District Council refused a planning application for change of use of the Tally Ho! to housing. Now local supporters are well down the road towards a community purchase of their pub. Have a look at their website Save the Tally! – we could be just a few months behind them !
Mike Thomas