Former pub is born again

Peter and his mate, Brian ‘Milky’ Clements, are walking down Huntington Road with Brian’s dog, Chico.

But when they see orange-jacketed men stripping the guts out of the old Fossway pub, opposite Bell Farm Avenue, they stop for a chat.

Both men were regulars for 30 years or so. “My mum and dad used to come in here,” says Peter.

That was before the pub fell on hard times. Its owners, Punch Taverns, closed it in 2009, blaming a drop in trade, licensing issues and other problems.

Since then, the place has stood empty – a target for vandals and fly-tippers. Lead was stolen from the roof, allowing water to leak in and damage the building, and the garden became overgrown.

Now, however, the former pub is being refurbished as a church. Peter and Brian are pleased. “I’d like it to be a pub still, really,” Brian says. “But there’s nowt you can do about that nowadays. And it is good to see it being used. It was going to waste.”

Peter agrees. “I’m glad it’s being used for something, and that it’s not being demolished,” he says.

The organisation which has come to the old pub’s rescue is the Living Word Church – a non-denominational church with an active membership in York which has never had its own permanent base in the city.

After buying the building, the church has been granted planning permission to use it for services and gatherings at the weekends – and hopes that in time, it will also be able to use it for community activities throughout the week.

The church’s pastor David Lavery, a burly Scot who was born in Glasgow, did his church training in South Wales, and is a prison chaplain as well as pastor and married father of two. He can’t wait to see the building used more.

When his church took, the place was a bit like the Marie Celeste, he jokes. “There was an old copy of the Daily Star in the bar, and there were still Christmas decorations up. It was as though they had just walked out and left it.”

It was also very much the worse for wear. Lead stolen from the roof left the building exposed to the elements. Water soaked down walls and gathered in puddles on the floor. Debris and rubble was scattered everywhere; the garden at the back which looks over the Foss was a wasteland.

But David could see the potential. It had been a big pub, with a large function room at the back opening on to a garden balcony, and a sizeable bar out front. There is a big basement, and two upper floors, each with several rooms.

Structurally, everything is there to make a great church and community centre, he says. “Pubs are built for communities and that’s how we’re going to us it, really.”

The big function room at the back will be the main church hall, used for services at weekends. And, providing planning permission can be obtained to use the building throughout the week – this is not certain, because there are issues with parking – David has big plans.

The front bar would make a great community café, he says – the church would keep the old wooden bar, though it wouldn’t serve alcohol. Upstairs would be offices and seminar rooms.

The church provides debt counselling, and also “marriage enrichment courses” to prepare people for marriage, and help married couples through relationship difficulties.

The top floor – again assuming planning permission is granted – would be a caretaker’s flat, and looking further ahead, David says the basement would make a great youth centre.

Big plans for a big old former pub. But it is the way the building is being converted, as much as what it will be used for, which is interesting.

The men in orange jackets stripping out the interior, clearing the garden, and filling skip after skip with rubble are not paid contractors. They are convicted offenders on the probation service’s Community Payback scheme.

There is nothing new about payback. In recent years, offenders under the supervision of Probation Service staff have cleared footpaths, tidied public parks, picked up litter and scrubbed away graffiti across York.

They have also painted the railings surrounding many of York’s public parks, a job which hadn’t been done in years.

“You name it, we do it,” says Ed Gray, community payback manager with the York and North Yorkshire Probation Trust.

But the whole idea of offenders giving something back to the communities they have harmed seems particularly appropriate in the wake of the riots that engulfed many UK cities.

None of the offenders working on the old Fossway pub is a rioter. Their offences were handed out long before the riots.

In fact, their backgrounds, and the crimes for which they were convicted, are as varied as it is possible to be. Greg Umpleby, for example, was banned from driving for four years and ordered to do 150 hours of community service after being caught drink-driving for the third time.

The 36-year-old’s family used to run the post office in Broadway, York, before selling up a few years ago. There were mitigating circumstances for his drink-driving this time, he says – although he doesn’t use them as an excuse.

He was already serving a ban, and was at his girlfriend’s house, having a drink, when he had a phone call to say his father had had a stroke. He borrowed his girlfriend’s car and drove to York Hospital to see his dad and was stopped en-route by the police.

They were great, he admits: after being processed, he was allowed to see his father. But he paid the consequences with a further lengthy driving ban and payback work.

He has no complaints: although he doesn’t much like wearing the orange jacket with the logo on, he admits. “It’s okay somewhere like this, but if you’re out on the street it’s a bit demeaning.” But working on a project like transforming the Fossway is worthwhile, he says. “It’s something real.”

David Adams agrees. The 51-year-old was sentenced to five months in prison for domestic violence after punching his wife. He is not proud of what he did, but his is not the simple story of a violent husband.

For 28 years, David was in the Army, rising to be a staff sergeant in the Royal Logistics Corps. He served in the Falklands, the Balkans and, most recently, in Iraq. And he saw things – “soldiering things”, as he puts it – that most of us cannot imagine.

Eventually, in 2008, he had had enough. But what he had seen stayed with him. He didn’t realise it at the time, but he has since been diagnosed with PTSD: he is still waiting to see a specialist to see if anything can be done to help him.

He finds the condition hard to describe, but it’s as though he brought back with him everything he saw in Iraq. “It was like a record player, when the needle sticks and keeps jumping back again.”

When he was released from prison, he realised he needed to do something to keep his mind occupied – so he volunteered for Community Payback.

Working on something like this gives a real sense of satisfaction, he says. “It’s hands on, and people will notice. They’ll see the difference.”

When he has finished his 200 hours, he’ll be looking for a job. He’s got plenty of skills, he says: man management, heavy goods. “But I’ll do anything that’s available. You can’t be fussy these days.”

Fossway history

THE Fossway closed in 2009 and has stood empty ever since. It was targeted by vandals and used for fly-tipping.

An initial application by the Living Word Church to turn the building into a church and community centre was turned down last year, despite being backed by three local residents associations, including Bell Farm.

Councillors were concerned about parking arrangements. North Yorkshire Police traffic management officer Steve Burrell had said that because Living Word was not a ‘mainstream’ church such as the Church of England, its congregation was likely to come from a wide area. “Therefore the motor car is likely to be the choice or only practical means of transport.”

This year, however, Living Word was given permission to use the building as a church at the weekends only. It hopes eventually to get permission for round-the-week use.

Paying back...

COMMUNITY Payback is where offenders are ordered by a court to “give something back” to the community by doing compulsory unpaid work. They are usually sentenced to between 40 and 300 hours.

The programme is managed by the Probation Service and offenders on the scheme are strictly monitored.

It is a form of punishment, but can also help to reduce crime, the Probation Service argues. Offenders learn new disciplines – from practical to social skills – that may help them to find employment.

“Work carried out such as gardening, forestry, painting and decorating and carpentry can be accredited by education providers, giving offenders a recognised certificate,” according to the website of the York and North Yorkshire Probation Trust.

“For many this is the first educational opportunity they have ever achieved and is an incentive to carry on with further education or apply for jobs.”

Payback projects in the York area have included refurbishing churches, cleaning up graffiti and picking up litter. In December 2010, payback workers helped scores of elderly people left housebound during the big freeze.

Payback projects must be of benefit to the local community, and must not take paid work away from others.

To suggest a project, email communitypayback@north-yorkshire.probation.gsi.gov.uk or phone the York and Selby Community Payback team on 01904 526000.