PEOPLE in Milborne St Andrew are preparing to take the next step in their bid to buy the village pub.

Milborne folk will return to their village hall on Wednesday, six weeks after packing the place with pledges of support for a community buy-out of The Royal Oak.

Villager, Tony Dyer, has been chairing a working group put together to take the project forward with a clearer understanding of the financial implications.

“There was a terrific display of enthusiasm at the last meeting. Providing we can raise a significant sum of money, we could lower our cost base by ploughing money back into the pub rather than paying shareholders,” said Mr Dyer.

Villagers are being invited to bring pledge forms to Wednesday’s meeting to give working group members a concrete indication of the level of support.

“We are hoping people will make pledges in excess of £250 so that we can form an opinion of whether we can go ahead.

If enough money is pledged, we can go to lenders, and then to Hall and Woodhouse and say, ‘We are serious about this.’ “I’m pretty confident. Other villages in the area have done this. And we have a forward thinking parish council,” said Mr Dyer.

About 120 people filled the village hall at the first meeting held to rally support for the salvation of the Royal Oak in January.

By the close of the meeting, about 100 villagers had signed up to the principle of backing their words with cash in a bid to meet the asking price of nearly £400,000.

Wednesday’s public meeting starts at 6.30pm.