Bid to save last watering hole

The Pengwern Arms closed in February

A community has come together to try and buy the last pub in their village after it closed down.

The committee, set up to produce a business plan, aims to run the Pengwern Arms at Llan Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, as a hotel.

Ideas include opening a 'cyber-cafe' for the area's youngsters, and tapping into a planned Gwynedd council development for older people.

The village of Llan Ffestiniog once had four public houses.

The Pengwern Arms Hotel is thought to date back up to 200 years and was originally called Yr Efail.

It closed in February, although Mel Goch ap Meirion the committee chairman said it took a few days for it to sink in.

"I was sitting at home thinking I must speak to so-and-so, but never mind I'll see him at the quiz on Monday - then I thought, there's not going to be a quiz on Monday, or any Monday after that, because the place is closed."

As a group we are very confident that this will succeed Mel Goch ap Meirion

The committee decided they would like to run the place as a hotel, rather than just a pub, because it had a greater chance of succeeding, he added.

"The committee meets every Wednesday and we are having a 'brain-storm' to decided what we want here, and also what we don't want," he added.

Ideas on the table already include opening one of the bars as a cyber-cafe for youngsters in the area to have somewhere to go.

"It's important to have somewhere for them to go because they currently call the village "the lay-by" because you only stop here briefly on the way to somewhere else.

"I do sympathise with them though because there is nothing to do here except hang around."

Watering hole

Another possibility is to link in to council plans to build extra-care housing for older people in the area.

"We're looking at servicing them in some way, either they come to us, or we could take food to them, it's just one of the ideas.

"As a group we are very confident that this will succeed," he added.

David Farrar, from Gwynedd and Môn Camra (Campaigning for Real Ale, Pubs and Drinkers) said the demise of the local watering hole was due to a number of factors.

"One of the reasons is the price of drinks in pubs, and I think perhaps the smoking ban affected it as well," he said.

Pub groups who charge their tenants too much, so when they left they were unable to replace them, were also to blame, he said.

"I feel at the moment people should start using them (their pub)," he added.