Trust helps owners of damaged pub

The Clutha Licensing Trust is helping support the owners of the Waihola pub badly damaged by fire last week and could provide a temporary watering hole in the lakeside township if this proves practical.

The Lake Waihola Cafe and Bar went up in flames last Wednesday morning.

The fire is not being treated as suspicious but has left the township without its popular pub in the meantime.

Trust general manager David Kenny yesterday said the trust wanted to help the Waihola managers in any way it could.

The trust owned the Waihola operation until it sold it in the mid-1990s.

It still supplies alcohol to the business.

The trust has a joint insurance package with three of its former properties at Lawrence, Clydevale and Waihola.

This was designed to reduce premiums for all involved, he said, and the trust was helping Waihola owners Kevin and Annette Reid through that process.

All parties are due to meet soon to "get a full grip on what's happening", Mr Kenny said.

In the meantime, he was open to suggestions on how the trust could help while the town was without its pub.

The type of help would be up to the Reids, who could not be contacted yesterday.

Mr Kenny said there was possibly "a range of options".

When asked if that included establishing a temporary pub somewhere in the town, he did not rule it out but emphasised that would be a decision for the Reids.