Micropub plan for Sittingbourne town centre

Sittingbourne Town Centre gets set for new Micropub

Donna Hartridge a former town centre pub manager is submitting plans to transform the former “Vintage Vapes” at 20 West Street, Sittingbourne into a new Micropub with regular live music.

The vacant building which closed last year has laid empty, but the brainchild Donna Hartridge who has years of experience in the pub trade in Swale, has exciting plans to transform the shop into Sittingbourne’s first town centre based Micropub. Sittingbourne already houses the “Paper Mill” in Charlotte Street, Sittingbourne which has proven to be a popular establishment for real ale, and is currently setting the trend for real ale and micropubs in Swale.

The 41-year-old is the former manager of Sittingbourne’s old Wetherspoons, the Summoner at the bottom end of the High Street, and now works at the Gunpowder Mill in Faversham.

She said: “Sittingbourne’s a big real ale community.

“We’ll be concentrating on Kentish ales like those from the Rockin Robin brewery and also doing ciders, wines and gin.

“There will be food in the day too and basically we will be doing what people want.”

Micropubs are defined as small pubs, selling real ales and ciders, which have a focus on promoting conversation as opposed to having loud music and sport on TV.

Donna, who is setting up the new venture with husband James, said “It won’t be like a Wetherspooons”

“We’ll sell what people want us to sell – real ale is the way to go. I wanted to do something on my own as opposed to taking on someone else’s pub. You can really put a bit of yourself into it.”

She added: “We’re still waiting on the change of use but we hope to open before Christmas.”

A premises licence application has been submitted to sell alcohol all week from 11am until 11pm, with serving stopping at 4pm on Sundays.

It also asks for the option to have live music Thursday to Saturday from 7pm to 11pm and recorded music at other times.