THE owner of a Lake District business park is looking to the future after the closure of Hawkshead Brewery's site in Staveley.

Halewood PLC, owners of Hawkshead Brewery located at Staveley Mill Yard, shocked staff and villagers this month when it announced the closure of its brewery and beer hall.

This included the redundancy of 12 full and part-time staff with three offered positions at the Flookburgh brewery where it will concentrate its production of Hawkshead beers.

Mill Yard owner David Brockbank wants to help staff set up a small local brewery producing craft beers and run it as a co-operative which he says would not be a competitive threat to a big national company like Halewood.

The company partly blamed the closure on the introduction of car parking charges, something Mr Brockbank has refuted, as well as the leased site not being 'sustainable' in terms of energy and efficiency.

It cited its manually operated equipment as 'unable to cope with the increased volumes'.

Staff and villagers felt robbed of a 'goodbye' after vans turned up on Tuesday (September 10) to 'rip out' the building of stock and fixtures before the anticipated closure date of September 22.

(Image: Mel Connell) Halewood holds a thirty-year lease on the buildings from Mr Brockbank which isn’t due to run out until 2030.

He said: "We’re naturally disappointed to be losing a popular tenant but our thoughts right now are with the 12 team members who have lost their livelihoods

"We have made repeated attempts to engage with Halewood over the last four months in the hope of finding a constructive way forward, but these attempts have been met with a wall of silence.

(Image: Mel Connell) "Our focus now is on supporting Halewood to vacate the premises as soon as possible and to finding a use for the unit that supports our ethos of providing a vibrant hub for the community across the wider yard complex.

"One possibility we are exploring is the creation of a community brewery and beer hall. This will, of course, require the cooperation of Halewood.

"After enjoying the support of our community for many years, we are hopeful they will see fit to pay that back by leaving the unit intact.

"Hawkshead are not allowed to do any ‘alterations’ without my consent.

"They can take out moveable stuff, but common services run through the premises, and we need to supervise - and have construction design manuals for any work – all of which we are insisting on."

(Image: Mel Connell) Mr Brockbank also refuted that car parking charges should be to blame for the beer hall's closure and that this had never been raised with him.

He said the council had introduced restrictions on parking in the village's main street despite opposition from the local parish council.

This led to some people using the Mill Yard as a free car park, including when taking the train to go to London.

"There weren’t enough spaces left for staff of the 45 businesses in the yard," he said. "Never mind the customers.

"We strongly refute any suggestions that parking charges on site are responsible for a drop in trade and it seems most people have seen through this flimsy narrative.

"Indeed, since they were implemented in March, we have recorded an incredibly steady number of visitors choosing to use our parking facilities."

Halewood has been contacted for comment.