Pub campaign website 'will not be taken down'

HOSTS of a website campaigning to keep a village pub open are refusing to take it down despite legal threats.

The Save the Halfway House group's website was taken down after the trust, which owns the former pub, threatened legal action against the first company which hosted it.

A similar demand has been made to a new host for the site, but it is refusing to take it offline. The Novalis Trust and some villagers are locked in a dispute over the pub in Box on the edge of Minchinhampton Common.

The trust, which runs the Cotswold Chine School next door said it wishes to use the pub premises as a cafe, open to the public, where its older students could have cookery and catering industry training.

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But some Box residents want the pub sold back into private ownership and be re-opened.

Sean Kelly said: "We are not accusing them of anything. We are asking them questions and we want the Novalis Trust to answer those questions.

"We have 30 to 40 people working on this and we won't give up."

Trust CEO Jake Lukas said it instructed solicitors to issue a notice to take the site down because it believed statements on it were defamatory.

"The Novalis Trustees owes a duty of care to those connected with the Cotswold Chine School to ensure so far as possible that they are not subjected to abuse or vilification by virtue of or arising from their connection with the school," he said in a statement.

"For this reason the trustees have taken legal advice and, acting on that advice, instructed their lawyers to make representations to the relevant internet service provider about the content of the website. The internet service provider agreed that the website should be taken down.

"A new service provider is now hosting the website and the same process will be undertaken with that provider."

He said the trust is "not prepared to engage in a public debate about anonymous allegations" and does not intend to reverse the decision to close the pub.