00:00After the COVID-19 pandemic, the George pub in Bethesden had the task of repairing and
00:05restoring their grade-listed building for use. And only several years on from reopening
00:09their doors, they've managed to win the Campaign for Real Ale's best pub in Ashford, Folkestone
00:13and Romney Marsh.
00:15Pub regulars came down ahead of their beer festival to celebrate the achievement.
00:18Oh, it feels fantastic. The vibe here is wonderful. I come to the George quite a lot. It's an
00:23amazing community-run pub. The village have bought the pub. There are so many shareholders
00:28of the pub who live here in the village and everybody in Bethesden really supports what
00:32the George is doing and has been trying to do. The food here is fantastic, the drinks here
00:37are fantastic, so this recognition from camera is just the icing on the cake.
00:41Now the pub's success is made all the better by the fact it's community-owned, meaning a
00:45committee of local residents are in charge of the pub, rather than a company, which they
00:49say provides a local touch.
00:51The pub wouldn't be here if the community weren't here regularly, keeping it afloat.
00:58So, what we as an organisation have tried to do is to work with clubs and organisations
01:08within the village and we're trying to develop that all of the time.
01:13Now although the village will be celebrating the George's success, plenty of other pubs
01:18do struggle, with the total going down year on year. So, what's the solution? Could it be
01:23that being a community-owned pub actually helps, or is there a dark future that lies ahead of
01:28us where we just don't have somewhere to enjoy our pints anymore?
01:32If community ownership is the solution, then there's a long way to go. According to Statista,
01:37there are more than 45,000 pubs across the UK, but it's only a small minority of them where
01:42local people own it as part of a committee. According to the Campaign for Real Ale, there's
01:47only 217 of them in the whole country, meaning less than half a percent of pubs are community-owned.
01:53And with the amount of pubs on the decline, officials say current government measures don't
01:57do much to help.
01:58Beer is one part of it, as far as tax is concerned, but there are so many other considerations
02:03to make. You have business rates, you have other taxes, you have utilities, so gas, electric,
02:10all of those things, wages, there are so many parts that make making a pub viable. So you
02:16need to look at a lot more things than just taking a penny off of the pint of beer.
02:20Well, since they've won pub of the year in Ashford, Folkestone and Romney Marsh, the George
02:24will go up against other winners to see if they can take the title for East Kent as well.
02:29Oh, very, very excited. We've got to win it.
02:34Finn McDermid for KMTV in Bethesden.
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