CAMRA names first campaigner of the year

April 23, 2008: Steve Westby, from Nottingham, has been named as the Campaign for Real Ale's (CAMRA) first real ale campaigner of the year ahead of its national members' weekend and annual meeting.

Steve wins the award for his hard work in creating and promoting a new initiative called LocAle which encourages pubs to serve at least one real ale that is brewed within 20 miles. The scheme has been trialled in Nottingham and CAMRA is set to roll it out nationally.

Following the announcement of the acquisition of Hardys & Hansons brewery by Greene King in 2006, Nottingham CAMRA tried desperately to persuade Greene King to keep the brewery open.

Although the campaign failed, it had a knock-on effect. It was suggested by CAMRA that, environmentally, it would be better for people to drink local beers than have beer moved around the country creating 'beer miles'. Too many pubs were also just offering global brands. Enthused about the idea, Steve coined the phrase ‘Locale and a new campaign was born.

With the support for this campaign from Nottingham CAMRA, Steve took it upon himself to draft the guidelines, to source appropriate point of sale items and ensure that the campaign would impact on pubs and drinkers alike.

The end result is Nottingham pubs now consider selling local beers, those that sign up to the campaign are selling local real ales and this is, therefore, environmentally friendly and supporting local business.

To be included in the Nottingham Locale scheme a pub must sell a beer that has been brewed within a 20-mile radius. Pubs that sign up to the campaign receive a variety of point of sale material to promote the fact that they sell local beers. Over 70 pubs in Nottingham have signed up to the scheme and the principles of the initiative have been adopted in York, Isle of Wight and Sheffield.

Steve said: “I feel very proud to be honoured as CAMRA's very first real ale campaigner of the year in recognition of the success of the Locale campaign. I dreamt up what became Locale over a pint one evening whilst mulling over the impact of the takeover and cynical closure of Nottingham's last major brewer, and it is pleasing that such a simple idea has become so successful.

"This success is very much due to the hard work of my colleagues on the Nottingham CAMRA committee in supporting the idea and I must also thank my son, Richard, for the clever design of the very distinctive Locale logo and for the supporting artwork that he created.”

Brett Laniosh, CAMRA's promotions and marketing director said: "CAMRA Locale is an exciting campaign that we will be encouraging our 200 branches to adopt. It is amazing how such a simple idea will now help local pubs and breweries and give consumers more local beers to try in pubs. I would personally like to congratulate Steve on being the first winner of this award."