News

In our recent updates we informed you that a number of offers had been made to the owner for the purchase of the Golden Lion, regrettably these have all been flatly rejected. Over the last 12 months we have been working closely with Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) and we have had a jointly procured valuation completed by Avison Young. This was completed in the late Summer. CWaC have now formally written to the owner referencing the output of this new valuation and clearly stating that this would be the starting point for the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) process. […]

The Ashton Hayes Community Hub Committee have been busy despite restrictions caused by the pandemic for another year. The Golden Lion was relisted as an ACV on the 29th April 2021 and the subsequent moratorium was triggered and ran its course concluding 6 months later. A formal offer of £342,000 was submitted under the moratorium via the then selling agents Wright Marshall. The owner within the same week then de-instructed Wright Marshall and appointed a new agent in BA Commercial of Chester. Our formal offer was then resubmitted to BA Commercial. Following a Sandstone ‘Ward Walk’ in 2021 with the […]

The Asset of Community Value legislation provided us with a six month moratorium to allow us to identify funding and place an offer for the Golden Lion to the owner. During the process we were able complete a viewing of the property in order to gain an insight into any further deterioration of the premises and to assist us in gaining an accurate valuation of the property. We were subsequently able to put a formal offer forwards via the agents to the owner within the moratorium period. Unfortunately the offer, which was a very fair one in our opinion based […]

Following the visits of our local MP, Edward Timpson and the CEO of Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC), we have had very productive meetings with our CWaC representative as we collectively move towards an agreed way forward for the acquisition of the Golden Lion. We are currently obtaining up to date valuations of the property, taking into account the building’s continuing deterioration and changes in the hospitality market. Once we have the valuations, we will be in a position to put in a realistic offer before the moratorium ends in November. If our offer is accepted, we intend to […]

Members of the Golden Lion committee have had several successful meetings recently. We were very pleased to welcome our local MP, Edward Timpson to the village and to show him the Golden Lion pub, which he recalls frequenting in the past. We talked through the project timeline to date and explained the current position of having triggered the moratorium under the recently listed Asset of Community Value (ACV). Edward Timpson was clearly impressed with the successful track record the community has in many of its previous projects and was clearly willing to lend his support and encouragement to the Golden […]

The Ashton Hayes Community Hub Committee have been busy despite the inevitable restrictions caused by the pandemic. When Covid restrictions began to be lifted in July last year we were able to pick up with Cheshire West and Chester Council regarding our request for a Compulsory Purchase Order on the pub but unfortunately another lockdown was put in place before much progress could be made. However, throughout lockdown the committee continued to produce the necessary documents to request the relisting of The Golden Lion as an Asset of Community Value. This request was approved and the property was relisted as […]