Save The Five Bells

Save the Five Bells Public House, Riseley

The Five Bells is the last traditional pub in Riseley and its loss will have a detrimental effect on the village community.

The Closure of the Five Bells will mean the end of the skittles, darts and pool teams and it will make it hard to maintain the football and cricket teams, all of which are historic and important to the social fabric of the village.

The pub closed due to lack of investment from the brewery and a succession of poorly vetted tenant landlords. The campaign to save the pub has proven beyond doubt that the Five Bells is still a viable business.

There is huge support to keep the pub with 85% of villagers pledging to use the Five Bells if it’s refurbished and reopened. The current economic down-turn will not last forever, the Five Bells needs to be protected for future generations.

A cash buyer has come forward to buy the Five Bells and keep it as a pub, but the brewery Greene King has opted to sell to a housing developer – even though the cash buyer offered more money than the developer!

The existing ‘pub’ in the village is not a traditional pub – it is predominantly a restaurant and does not offer any of the amenities of a village pub. It keeps restaurant, not usual pub opening hours and village farm workers and labourers cannot use it straight from work.

The developer has applied to ‘change the use’ of the Five Bells from a pub (A4) to residential (C3), once use has been changed, it’s almost impossible to change it back.