Are you free on Tuesday 30th October?

On 30th October hundreds of CAMRA members will descend on Parliament to lobby their MPs in a national day of action.

We will be asking MPs to commit to the following CAMRA campaigns:

- Axeing plans to increase beer duty in the upcoming Autumn Budget. 

- A permanent business rate relief for pubs in the upcoming Autumn Budget.

- An urgent review of the Pubs Code so that the Market Rent Only option becomes a genuine choice for tenants. 

Interested in taking part? Click here to download our FAQs document on the timings of the day, being a delegate and claiming travel expenses..

The branch has recently been informed of the sad loss of one of its long-standing members, Mike Kerr, who lost his fight with cancer on Wednesday the 18^th July. 

Mike was most active with the branch during the branch’s early 2000s renaissance under the chairmanship of Neil Worthington and Beverley Gobbett but continued to keep in touch right up to this year.

Some may remember him best turning up at St Clements Church with the volunteers food in his wonderful old green sports car.  It didn’t have much of a boot so he would have a box fastened in on the passenger seat.

Before his health began to deteriorate, he was a very active in surveying pubs, keeping the branch up to date with news of pubs at the southern end of our area, and generally banging the drum for good ale in good pubs.

Mike was one for doing things by the rule book, especially when we'd written the rule book ourselves. Many a meeting was put back on track by Mike reminding the meeting that the branch had responsibilities to CAMRA nationally.

Former branch member Dominic Driscoll, now brewer at Thornbridge Brewery remembered Mike thus: “Awkward sod that stuck to his guns but very much a believer in the cause. He was a kind man though, I liked him a lot. Always had time for me, even though I was the young whippersnapper."

Mike is pictured in 2007 with Jackie Bardsley at the Quarry Bank in Timperley. The branch were invited to have a membership stand at the pubs own beer festival so that we could introduce ourselves to the local residents and Mike stepped up to a weekend in the pub.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Liz and their family.