Cash aid for vets practice

A Shropshire vet's practice specialising in farm animals has been given a big helping hand to expand.

And the staff are raising a glass to celebrate after re-locating to a former pub with support from the Rural Regeneration Zone Redundant Building Grant Scheme.

Lambert, Leonard & May Farm Veterinary Surgeons moved the five miles from Broomhall, Cheshire, to the former Ancient Briton in Old Woodhouses, near Whitchurch, Shropshire, in June 2008.

The 17th-Century pub closed in 2006 because of flagging custom.

But it is enjoying a new lease of life as the HQ of the thriving veterinary practice after a £190,000 refurbishment carried out with the help of a £40,000 investment from the scheme.

The scheme, funded by Advantage West Midlands' Rural Regeneration Zone and administered by Herefordshire Council, provides for the conversion or refurbishment of redundant buildings to bring them back into productive business use or to enhance their current business use.

Grants of up to 25 per cent of conversion costs or £62,500 are available to eligible companies in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire.

Over the past five years the Advantage West Midlands scheme has seen 80 grants allocated worth £2.3 million, helping to create almost 300 new jobs and safeguard almost 200 more.

Lambert, Leonard & May, which employs 14 vets and 12 support staff, hopes the move will create even more jobs in the next few years by boosting its client base.

Lambert, Leonard & May was established in 1999 and provides a full range of services to farmers in Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire.

The new premises include offices, training/meeting room, laboratory and retail outlet.

Some original features of the building's former role have been retained including a bar counter and beer hand pump for when the practice arranges hospitality for farmers at educational meetings.

Owen Atkinson, a managing partner with Lambert, Leonard & May, said: "RBG grant support has been phenomenally useful in making this move possible and helping our focus on delivering best value to our clients.

"We are a community-based farm animal practice which is serving the local community in a similar way to the pub.

"Investing in our own premises will help us to offer the best quality service to our farm clients at the most reasonable price.

"It is more cost-effective for a business our size to own and manage our own premises rather than continue to rent buildings."

Caroline Cattle, redundant building grant programme manager for Shropshire, said: "This is exactly the kind of innovative project that we are looking for.

"This old pub has now been brought back into use, but has also helped to attract some high-value added jobs to Shropshire.

"Over the past five years, the scheme has been a tremendous success in Shropshire, with 31 individual projects creating more than 100 new jobs."