The mystery around Selkirk’s Queen’s Head pub deepens, as an unidentified Facebook group vow it is opening in July.
Mr John Poletti, who last week refused to deny or confirm he was the owner of Selkirk’s empty West Port pub, told TheSouthern: “There are people wanting to go trading there at the end of the month.”
On June 26, five days after The Southern broke the story about Selkirk’s community buy-out proposal, a Facebook page was created called ‘Queen’s Head Selkirk’ (QHS), which keeps their identity and contact details secret, but promises: “Opening late July 2013”. Many ‘liking’ the page welcome the news: “luv that place,”; “so many people have fond memories”; “shame it’s turned into a bit of an eye sore over the years!”; “it will need a lot of work done to it as the building has been empty for a good few years.”
But others were more sceptical: “Are you sure it’s July this year?”; “bets on not even open by the end of the year,”; “is this just another pipe dream like so many others?”
One man said: “I’ve just had a look at your premises. End of July you say? I think you’ll need to get Ty Pennington and the extreme makeover guys in coz the place doesn’t look near ready to be open in time.”
He added: “Why are you not allowing posts from the people of Selkirk to appear on your page? I know of several that have been posted and none appear.” QHS hasn’t responded.
Another noticed the pub had “no licence applications pending on the Scottish Borders licencing website”.
But Scottish Borders Council has confirmed that once a premises has a liquor licence, the licence holder (normally the owner) can transfer it to another qualified person without a public ‘site notice’.
QHS then posted: “Recruitment – send cv’s to queensselkirk@hotmail.com” for a “chef (40 hours)” and “housekeeper (40 hours)” with “more vacancies coming soon.” One person responded: “Cutting it a bit fine on the recruitment given you open in 3-4 weeks.”
Some suspect a conspiracy: “This is a hoax!”; “Is the wee game going to stop now, is the truth going to come out? I have to say I’ve been sitting chuckling all week.”
One angrier post pled: “Can the new owners of this place stop playing cat and mouse with the general public. This cloak and dagger act does not indear (sic) yourself to your possible new customers. It’s all very confusing and suspicious. Show your hand and stop mucking the public about, or declare yourself out.” So, as one post asks: “Who is Queen’s Head Selkirk?”. QHS declared: “we will publically announce ourselves by the week’s end.”