Thank you to everyone for coming this evening and to all of those who can't be here this evening that have participated in our events and campaigning throughout the year.
This is the point at which Dave Roe, when Chairman, would traditionally say the local branch has 800 members but I can't see them queuing out of the door. However, with every seat taken around the table this evening, tonight is a major improvement in turnout.
To start with a few positive reflections. At the end of November, the branch held a very successful celebration marking 50 years since the first CAMRA meeting in Buckinghamshire. It was held in this very room and a very enjoyable time was had by all and thanks to all who brought along memorabilia to help mark the years. The evening was made all the more special by the attendance of Robert Watson, who was an early chairman of the branch and attended that first meeting in the Rose and Crown, Saunderton, his father’s pub at the time (and later Robert’s own).
As Dave points out, the branch itself does not turn fifty until this year so we have a good excuse to celebrate all over again, although branch finances might not stretch to quite the same degree of hospitality.
The branch also organised a very successful regional social event in London at the end of January which was very well attended by our colleagues in the Central Southern region (of which more later).
We've also achieved some good recognition in the local papers with coverage of our Pub and Club of the Year presentations and our anniversary celebration here, which keeps the branch's visibility up
We’re now well over two years on from any Coronavirus lockdowns although their legacy, combined with the energy crisis and rampant inflation, continues to cast a long shadow over the pub industry in particular.
You will all be aware of tough economic conditions facing pubs and breweries – and cask ale in particular – from communications from CAMRA nationally (although maybe less aware than when What’s Brewing was delivered in print every month) – so I won’t dwell on this. However, with prices per pint creeping up to the £5 in local pubs and £7 or £8 pints becoming common in London, there’s a real danger that visiting the pub is beginning to be seen as a luxury by many hard-pressed people.
In our branch area we’ve seen one of our larger brewers, Malt the Brewery, close for good, although the reasons behind this were not necessarily economic. We have also lost a number of pubs for good. Our local councils’ planning departments do not give the impression that they are particularly good friends of pubs, nor of the tens of thousands of their electors who use them. In the last few months, South Oxfordshire Council has approved change of use for both the Shepherd’s Crook, Crowell and the Swan Hotel in Thame. Buckinghamshire Council has approved the permanent loss of the Rose and Crown in Stone, the last pub in that sizeable village. An even larger village, Haddenham, is facing the loss of one its few remaining pubs, the Rose and Thistle, possibly leaving it with only two pubs.
We received a letter recently from a CAMRA member who remarked on the alarming loss of pubs along the London Road in High Wycombe. There are many other pubs which are closed pending planning decisions. There was a surprising weather report from a place down south called ‘hell’ which reported extensive icy conditions following Buckinghamshire Council’s acceptance of an application to list the Dereham’s Inn in Loudwater as an ACV, following a vociferous local campaign.
Nevertheless, there have been some good news stories. The George and Dragon in Quainton has been saved by a group of local people and another George and Dragon, in Princes Risborough, reopened after a long period of closure. The Eight Bells in Long Crendon also reopened – to name a few. In the coming year we may at last see a new Wetherspoons in Marlow, although not in Beaconsfield. However, the Beaconsfield Taps was a welcome addition to Beaconsfield New Town this year.
As always, the message about preserving local pubs is "use them or lose them". The most effective way to support local pubs and brewers is to give them your custom. The last year has been challenging for brewers but happily our remaining excellent breweries appear to be weathering the storm well. Chiltern have completed their brewery expansion, Rebellion’s Tap Yard is proving very popular and XT and Vale continue to produce excellent real ales. We also have the successful Booby Trap brewery in Westcott, although they are currently producing keg only.
Many thanks to our team of Brewery Liaison Officers who provide vital information for the Good Beer Guide and pass on information to the local membership.
Sadly we will be unable to sample our local breweries’ beers at the Great British Beer Festival this summer which, after returning from a COVID break for two years, is not being staged in August 2024. It promises to return in 2025 in a different venue but it’s a shame to miss such a big part of CAMRA’s summer again.
Like many CAMRA branches we’ve experienced a decline in the numbers of active members and have had limited success in recruiting new blood. While trying to recruit new members is difficult, if we do not succeed in doing this then the branch will cease to carry out the same level of activity.
This smaller group of volunteers needs to carry on CAMRA activities like selecting Good Beer Guide pubs and choosing Pub and Club of the Year. While it might not be that visible from the outside, the branch is frequently contacted by CAMRA members, members of the public, parish councils, local breweries, charities, beer festival organisers, the local press and many other often to ask for publicity for events or assistance in trying to save local pubs. Much of the work involved in responding to these queries falls to a very small number of volunteers and is not immediately visible to the wider membership – and can be, frankly, a literally thankless task and most people seeking our help never come back to express any appreciation. However, it shows that CAMRA is seen as a vital organisation at local level in protecting local pubs and breweries and would be sorely missed if we either disappeared or were not able to provide the level of support “behind the scenes” that we do.
We continue to communicate news gathered from these sources to members via email using the CAMRA Comms Tool. This reaches a maximum of just over 400 people on the mailing list, of which maybe open the emails (which is a remarkably high figure, by the way). This contrasts with the circulation of 5,000 that we reach with Swan Supping.
As beer scores show, our members have an enthusiastic presence in many of our Good Beer Guide pubs in the towns in our branch. However, we don’t get out to as many of the more rural pubs as we used to.
Before Covid lockdowns we used to have a virtuous circle where volunteers would deliver Swan Supping every couple of months to their round of pubs, then pick up local news from the pubs as they visited (and maybe survey the pubs for the Good Beer Guide), which would then be reported back to the local branch. Unfortunately, some of our Swan Supping deliverers are no longer able to volunteer, giving us some gaps in our local coverage. However, we do get a large number of updates from members on pub details via the form in What’s App and I’d like to thank Andrew Eastwood for his speedy and conscientious responses to these updates, ensuring that Pubzilla is regularly maintained and updated – and also for Andrew’s updates on the branch website.
Speaking of Swan Supping, we moved into a new method of publication in the last year in conjunction with Paper Red Media. Having made losses on publishing Swan Supping ourselves post-Covid, this arrangement leaves all the financial risk and reward with Paper Red Media, who are responsible for finding advertisers, much to Dave’s disappointment, I’m sure. The plan is to publish Swan Supping quarterly under this arrangement. The next issue is planned for around Easter time. Many thanks, as always, to Dave for his time editing the magazine.
Thanks also to Dave for organising the Black Country coach trip, which occurred a little later than normal this year but was enjoyed by all who attended – and made a small profit. We’ve also organised some relatively well attended joint socials with other Central Southern branches, such as Marlow with Slough Windsor and Maidenhead, Aylesbury with North Bucks and Milton Keynes and Oxford with, er, Oxford.
Speaking of Central Southern region, by the time of the next AGM, it will almost certainly no longer exist. Due to decisions of CAMRA’s National Executive we will likely be in a region called Eastern Central (or similar) and our new friends (and regional POTYs, etc.) will be in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire. There’s a meeting to discuss this next Sunday (3rd March) in Caversham if you’re interested. All I’ll say is whoever decided the new regions probably wasn’t much good at map reading.
As always there are sadly friends of the branch in the local area who have sadly passed away. Among these recently was JJ Wilkinson who did so much to build the Royal British Legion, Marlow into a real ale destination and frequent winner of our Club of the Year award. We also remember Brian West, who delivered Swan Supping in Thame for many years. Let’s raise our glasses to those who will be sadly missed. Nevertheless, despite the doom and gloom, we should give ourselves a small pat on the back that we're just all still here and that we have so many excellent pubs and breweries remaining in the branch.
It just remains for me to thank Simon Heap for his hard work as secretary, Dave as treasurer, Elvis as deputy chairman and all the branch officials, committee members and other active members for all their hard work in the last year and to drink to all our collective good health.
