Dear CCPS supporters,
We write to you with the latest news from Countryman’s Community Pub Society Ltd.
Community Ownership Fund assessment and shortlisting
In the days following the announcement of first round Community Ownership Funding decisions, we received some encouragement from the government Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The extract below is from a government note on COF assessment and decision making. The full note can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/community-ownership-fund-explanatory-note-on-the-assessment-and-decision-making-process?fbclid=IwAR35-7PsWjDmtiFXCsb8yz3Oor5zv8ueXnYhHLndUgU-hvJ-UQTsybdcRKw
“Following moderation, officials were able to present a shortlist of 30 bids which had met the minimum criteria and therefore considered fundable. Of the 131 bids which did not make the shortlist of bids considered fundable, 53 were unsuccessful (did not meet the minimum scoring criteria), 69 were disqualified (as they did not meet the requirements of the fund) and 9 failed due diligence checks.”
As stated in the decision letter we received from the minister in charge of the COF, the CCPS bid met all of the fund’s criteria and was therefore eligible for funding, but missed out this time due to overapplication for the first round’s allocated budget. We can therefore assume that we were one of the top 30 applications! There is great encouragement to be taken from this.
This has bolstered our already committed efforts to strengthening our bid for submission to the second round of COF funding, which is due to open for applications in December. In the meantime…
Confirmed launch date for the CCPS COMMUNITY SHARE OFFER
Exciting times around the corner! We firmly believe that launching our share offer as planned will strengthen our re-submission to the COF, by demonstrating to the funders that we are able to move quickly to secure The Countryman’s Inn as a community owned pub. Therefore, our time-limited community share offering will launch on Friday 26th November 2021 and run until Monday 20th December 2021. 
Friday 26th November 2021 – CCPS community share offer launch date
Share offer information meeting: We will hold an open meeting via Zoom on Thursday 25th November at 8pm, where the CCPS committee will present the share offer and hold a Q&A in advance of the launch the following day. All mailing list recipients will receive the details for this meeting in due course. Our share prospectus and full business plan will be available for potential investors to read prior to purchasing their shares.
Priority window for those who pledged in principle: all those who pledged in principle for share investment will be eligible to buy shares during an exclusive window, which will span from Friday 26th November to Wednesday 1st December. From Thursday 2nd December, the share offer will be open to anyone who wishes to buy shares.
CCPS website
The CCPS website is in the final stages of development and will be launched within the next fortnight. All the information you need about the CCPS, our community share offering, and our plans for community ownership of The Countryman’s Inn will be available at: https://countrymanscommunity.org/
CCPS Facebook Page
Social media users! Keep an eye out for a new CCPS Facebook page. This page will be public and an additional way to access all things CCPS! Please invite your friends, family and neighbours to ‘like’ the page when it launches over the coming days.
Finally, as always, we welcome expressions of interest from anyone who would like to get stuck in with the CCPS committee! Please email countrymans.community@gmail.com to get involved.
Further updates will follow soon!
Countryman's Community Pub Society 