RESIDENTS near Leominster are hoping to secure the future of a popular county pub.

The Bell Inn at Yarpole is for sale for £325,000 and the local community are hoping to come together and buy it.

The pub is registered as a community asset and a meeting to discuss its future will take place at St Leonards Church on May 3 at 7pm.

The meeting will explain how the inn can be purchased from its current owners Enterprise Inns and the organisers say their plan would involve looking for a suitable tenant to run the pub as a free house.

Any money invested in the scheme could receive a return of 3 per cent.

A spokesperson for the group said: “Our objective is to have a friendly and welcoming village pub that serves local beers and sensibly priced freshly prepared food as well as possibly offering additional community services in the future.

“We will set a fair rent and agree a lease with the tenant who will run the pub as a free house selling food and drink.

“The rent will be set at a level that gives the tenant the opportunity and incentive to run a profitable pub business and which will provide the revenue for us to maintain the building, to repay any loans we take out, and when cash and reserves permit, to pay a modest interest to share-holders and to fund the withdrawal of shares from time to time. “We firmly believe that the business will be profitable but in the unlikely event it is not, the community will own a valuable asset – the building and land associated with it – which if necessary could be sold in order to return funds to the investors.” For more information email community@yarpole.com .