I have never spent so much time talking about a pub rather than being in one and here we go again.        My name is Warren Carter and I’m chair of the Bevendean community pub. A few of us had this crazy idea a while back that people round here deserve somewhere decent to eat, drink and meet. We planned, plotted and argued over where the toilets would go.
Then last December we launched our share issue to raise funds. Firstly, congratulations to everyone – we have the most members of any co-op pub in the    country!
An incredible 545 people are now members, lots of them live locally and in the city but some are from Europe, Australia and America!
This is a movement that is going to spread. There are 18 co-op pubs now and over 300 community shops around the country.
But what we are doing in Moulsecoomb and Bevendean is unique – the first on a housing estate. Of course this has meant it has been a lot harder to raise funds. But we managed an incredible 44 thousand from shares with an extra 20k pledged for the rebuild so we currently have 65k in the pot.
So when are we going to open the bloody thing?
We held our 1st  AGM on the 23rd of June and voted in 9 management committee members. We also asked our members to vote on whether or not we should   employ a part time project manager for three months. We need someone to pull together all the threads, draw up timeline of work needed, all the offers of help from builders and companies, look at sourcing materials and see where we can save costs from our business plan.
The project manager’s wages won’t come out of share money. We can’t spend the share money until we have enough to start the rebuild. Instead it is coming out of our fundraising fund we have, money raised from pop up Bevy bars and selling cakes to local offices and even the police. 
It’s hard to put a figure on it but if we can raise       another 65k we could be sipping our first beer or     coffee.
How are we going to do this?
We are talking to banks, the council; we are looking at crowdfunding, more pop up Bevy bars and writing to wealthy individuals.
We need your ideas and enthusiasm and probably some more of your money to make this happen. If you are a plumber, plasterer, fancy a bit of gardening, can work behind our fundraising bars please let us know.
What we are doing is something very special, a       flagship project where people from other towns and cities will come and visit to see how it is done. Just like the Albion stadium we want people to have a Wow factor. The people round here deserve that. Let’s work together for the people of Moulsecoomb, Bevendean and Bates estates to have a place they can be proud of.
Cheers…