THE NEW landlords of a problematic pub with a history of violence are hoping to turn it into a ‘friendly community hub for everyone’.

Tony Freshwater and his partner Becky are the new owners of The White Heather in Ferndown. 

The pub has been the subject of multiple bar fights and anti-social behaviour in the past few years.

(Image: Tony Freshwater)

Tony said: “I've worked in a few pubs and I've managed pubs. I started off as a barman in Harvester and worked my way up to now owning my own pub.

“I’m excited to open, we’ve got a lot of backing from the community.

“We’ve been after it for a few years now, there’s a lot of potential with this pub.

“It’s got a reputation of being quite a rough place and we want to change that.

“I want to take it over because I’ve always had dreams of having my own pub, I know its still managed by the brewery but it’s a great start."

Tony added: “Now that the Wetherspoons has closed it’s the only free community hub place in Ferndown.

“I want to utilise the car park and do a couple of events like festivals and get burger vans, live music.

“We’ve got two dogs ourselves who act as doormen, so we want to be known as a very dog friendly place.”

Tony and his partner Becky have big plans for the future of the pub: “I’ve got a licence from 8am so we’re planning on doing breakfasts and a tea and cake event for the elderly in the area so they can come down and have a chat with each other.

“The food has been hit and miss in there over the years, we want to sell good pub grub that’s not too expensive because before the food wasn’t up to its full potential.

“I want to change the negativity to a positivity; we want to change how this pub has been viewed in the past and hope everyone will like it.”

The White Heather reopened on September 5.