A PUB at the ‘heart of the community’ in Accrington is looking to secure its future by becoming an asset of community value.

A public meeting was held at The Castle Pub in Whalley Road on Tuesday night to discuss ideas for saving the venue.

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The pub was shut for around two weeks at the start of the year, before an online petition was set up to get it to reopen.

The doors were opened again at the start of February, however its future is still under threat.

Landlord Jonathan White, who has been working behind the bar for more than a decade, said: “There’s a lot of miscommunication, nobody knows what is going, we’re all a bit in the dark.

“It’s the only pub left open on this side of town and we’ve had so much support, the reaction was great when we reopened.

“But the pub has been put back up for sale and there’s a lot of interest in it.

“We want to make sure we do what we can to keep the pub open and becoming an asset of community value would give us chance to do that.”

Pub regular Fran Hartley voiced his support for the plans and thinks the pub is an important community venue.

He said: “I’m an Accrington Stanley ticket holder and I missed a game for this, but I’d rather come here and save the pub.

“When it boils down to it, it is a community pub and we need to keep it open.”

A variety of reasons for why it should stay open were voiced at the meeting including the pool, darts and rugby teams situated at the venue, the town centre location and the numerous charity events it has hosted.

Around 40 people attended the meeting and around 150 have signed the nomination forms for the pub to be considered as a community asset.

Members from other community-run pubs that were saved by achieving community asset status also attended.

Nick Brown, from Blackburn’s Save the Naper Campaign, said: “We wanted the same thing.

“It’s not just somewhere for people to go get drunk in, its a real place of value, its a community pub.”

Jean Bain, from the Dog Inn, Belthorn, said: “This pub’s in a better position than we were.

“It’s a fantastic asset and it’s at the heart of the community.”