A TEAM of community volunteers are aiming to maintain a York pub at risk of closure.

Regular customers at the Lord Nelson in Nether Poppleton say they are worried that the Main Street pub may close after owners Enterprise Inns said they were considering selling it.

A public meeting was held at the pub on June 5, at which residents were asked to contribute their thoughts on how they could help the pub.

On Monday, Nether Poppleton Parish Council met for the first time since the public meeting, and James Mackman, parish council clerk said he was impressed with the number of people who came out to support the Lord Nelson.

He said: “105 people signed in to the meeting on June 5, 87 of them gave me an email address.

“I asked them to put their names forward to create an action committee and got 17 people come forward to meet this week and hopefully they will take the subject further.”

Enterprise Inns previously told The Press it was “currently considering options for the Lord Nelson”, and the team is set to meet tonight to discuss how they can support the pub. Mr Mackman said: “We’ve got architects, accountants, solicitors and a chap who’s been in the publican business for most of his working life so we’ve got quite a lot of working experience to be able to pull together and take it forward.”

Speaking about the pub becoming an asset of community value, he said: “ Enterprise Inns will want to maximise income from the site and people in the village want to maintain the pub and between them I hope they make that happen and providing they take that route, I’m fairly confident they could do this.”