Paul Hollywood has dug deep to splash out more than £80,000 alongside his wife Melissa, in a bid to save her family's pub which is struggling to operate on a day-to-day basis.
The 58-year-old Great British Bake Off judge has used £40,000 of his own cash and that has been matched by Melissa, who was the landlady of Grade-II listed pub, The Chequers Inn, when he met her as they clubbed together to keep the boozer open. Now they are saying that it is not financially viable keeping the pub open everyday and the family would like to turn it into a residential property, much to the annoyance of villagers.
Plans to do this in Smarden, Kent were met with objections from nearly 50 residents, who were furious with the plans as a planning committee deferred its decision. Melissa told the meeting of Ashford Borough Council, at which Paul supported her, that she had invested heavily in the pub.
She said: "I have personally given £40,000 of my personal savings, as has my husband. My parents have given considerably more. The Chequers is dying on its feet. Local trade is not enough to support it. The pub made substantial losses last year and the turnover is down £88,000 for the first quarter of this year. Daily opening can’t be sustained.”
Local residents are hoping to buy the 14th-century coaching inn and have launched the Smarden Community Pub group with plans to raise the £825,000 required to make the public house theirs. One of its members, Russ Phipps, told the meeting: "The inn has been a real lifeline to many villagers and offers something completely different to the village. “Please save our inn.”
Councillor Kayleigh Brunger-Randall said: “There’s clearly enough local support for the business to continue if allowed to do so.”
While the amount invested by Paul in the pub is eye-watering, it won't be missed too much by the Bake Off star as he has reportedly signed a six-figure deal to be the face of an iconic advert. The famous baker is set to star in the new ads for comparison site Compare the Market, which famously feature meerkats. It is thought he will use his surname as a pun to promote their 2-4-1 cinema ticket deal for customers.
He is the latest big name to appear in the Compare the Market adverts following in the footsteps of legendary actors Nicole Kidman, Macaulay Culkin and Arnold Schwarznegger. The famous ads, which first appeared on TV screens back in 2009, feature Russian meerkat Aleksandr Orlov and the antics of his family and friends. Playing on the similarity between the words meerkat and market, they are instantly recognisable, as is Orlov’s catchphrase ‘simples’.
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