In a small village such as ours there are a limited number of places where people can get together. I occasionally attend events at the village hall, though - like the vast majority of people in Britain - I don’t actually go to church. I have, however, been known to go to the pub.  Not often enough, it seems; for the Russell Arms, some fifteen minutes stroll from our cottage, is now under threat of closure.  The pub group which owns it has it up for sale with a guide price of £425,000, and - unless something is done - it is likely to become yet another Indian restaurant, or be converted into a private home, as happened to our local post office a matter of weeks after we actually moved into the area.

There isn’t much time to save the only pub in the area but, luckily, a concerned group of locals (not all habitues of the Russell) have sprung into action.

The idea (as their published Statement of Intent goes) is to set up a limited company funded by everyone in the village who would like to own a share in our local pub.

The company, e.g. “The Russell Arms Company Ltd”, will buy the freehold, meaning that the pub is no longer tied to any brewery and we own the land and building outright: your investment is therefore in the bricks and mortar of the pub and surrounding land. You will not be expected to know anything about running the business.  As the village would then own the building we can reserve the right to keep a valuable local amenity to be run as it should be, a successful local pub.

Prospective tenants will be interviewed and present their plans for the pub. The successful tenant would be appointed to run the pub at their own business risk, but the rent would be set to give the tenant the best opportunity to make a success of the venture. The Company Board would monitor the lease agreement and ensure that all ‘fiduciary’ (Director) duties are complied with. The Company would have no executive function in the running of the pub – this would be left to the tenant.

Obviously, as the people living in the village will be the pub’s key customers, we would expect the tenants to take on board what the village wants from its local, but the shareholders and Board would not get actively involved in the day to day decisions of running the pub.

Seeing that there are only about 400 houses in the village, not all of which are occupied by well-heeled incomers, it is asking a lot to expect people to cough up an average of well over a grand per household (and more would be needed to refurbish the property). In fact the prime movers are hoping that people will invest in units of 5K, without much  chance of securing more than ‘a modest return’, as the Statement goes on to say. The emphasis will be on  ‘securing the business in the short term [..] The lease would be structured so that shareholders can share the success of the venture with the tenant’.

The latest information is that well over half the money needed has been pledged, and it is hoped that the momentum will increase and the Russell will not only be saved but become an even livelier place for the village people to ‘meet up with friends, go for a cheap pub lunch or eat out in the evening’.

These last words are those of the Chairman of local Parish Magazine, writing in the issue hand delivered to our door just today.  He goes on to say that, in his opinion,

its loss will depress the desirability of living in this neighbourhood, Butlers Cross would become a string of houses with no heart.

The possible loss of our local is not, however, the only reason for apprehension and anger in our neck of the woods.  Another local pub, The Bernard Arms at Great Kimble, is also under threat it seems.  (This is just over the road from another of the Chequers lodges, which makes it quite handy for any Prime Minister who fancies a pint, notably John Major who once took Russian President Boris Yeltsin there, only to discover it was shut. Apparently Yeltsin’s aides hammered on the door shouting: ‘Open up – it’s the President of Russia’, and a voice inside replied: ‘Yes – and this is the Kaiser speaking.’)

And it’s not just pub closures that threaten our well-being.  As from next week the 300 bus which stops five minutes walk from the cottage every 20 minutes during weekdays, and even once an hour on Sundays, is being diverted (apparently to save 10 minutes time on the journey between High  Wycombe and Aylesbury).  The nearest it will come to the village is a good 20 minutes walk away - uphill on the way back - along a road with no footpaths which commuting drivers use as a rat run, totally ignoring speed restrictions. Instead we have an alternative service on offer: two buses before 9 am (i.e. before the over 60s can use their free bus pass), and two buses between 5pm and 7pm, with one every two hours during the day.

This means, as a correspondent of the Parish Magazine writes, that

So many elderly people in Butlers Cross will be unable to go out to do their own shopping, visit their doctor or pharmacy, go to the post office, the library, the cinema or to our new theatre in Aylesbury.

Jane and I are not stranded to that extent, since I still run a car and hope to do so for quite a few years to come.  But there will come a time, inevitably, when this will no longer be desirable.  And, in any case, it sticks in my craw that I am going to be forced to pump out fumes and use up oil when we have got used to the friendly companionship of free bus travel, just - as I said - so that some people can save 10 minutes.

And if all that is not enough, this wretched Government has just given the go-ahead to the HS2 (High Speed Two) scheme, for a snazzy fast new railway line which will tear the heart out of the Chilterns just so that overpaid business types can shave half an hour off the journey from London to Birmingham, a saving which will, it seems, be totally negated due to the fact that these trains can’t actually get right into the centre of Birmingham, as a result of which these OBTs will doubtless end up saying sod this for a game of soldiers I’ll take the car.

I’m fuming so much that I was searching for a more or less printable way to sum up my feelings, when I suddenly remembered that another letter to the Parish magazine, from Tony Young, (under the headline ‘The other Atrocity in the Chilterns’) draws our attention to

an epic battle to stop Bucks County Council allowing Trail Riders to access the footpaths above Kimble for riding motor bikes  which potentially would also give legal access to other motorised traffic.

It seems that these ‘Trail Riders’, looking for any excuse to drive motorbikes and 4 x 4s off-road, have

filed numerous applications to County Councils to winkle out ancient tracks once used for horse drawn vehicles and the like to make them legally accessible for motorised traffic .... Unbelievably, a steep footpath above the quiet villages of Kimble and Ellesborough was in the line of fire and Bucks County Council decided that this one would be chosen as an ancient route worthy of classification as a Byway Open To All Traffic (BOAT).  Local villagers and other country lovers were appalled at the prospect. Never in living memory had motorised vehicles been known to use the proposed route.

Tony goes on to point out that Parish Councils, worried about having to foot legal costs, were unwilling to become involved, and it has been left to ‘a small but very determined local group’ to challenge these people who are bent on destroying the peace of our part of the countryside.  The outcome is still uncertain.

So there we go. If both our nearest pubs close we’ll either have to drive a couple of miles to have a drink (which would be half a pint if we want to stay under the limit); or we can choose between braving the mad traffic along the pavement-less road for twenty minutes or heading along the quiet country path where Mad Max and his cohorts will be reigning supreme. And don’t even ask where the high speed train is supposed to be going.