A Spalding town centre pub has bid farewell to the South Holland Centre which will have new faces behind the bar.
The Red Lion Hotel has provided the bar services for the centre for two-and-a-half years but following a tender process has lost out to a new company.
Operated by the former owner of Spalding’s Sessions House, the successful company Court 1 is owned by Edward Sneath and his wife Dorota.
Mr Sneath’s mother Elizabeth is a serving member of South Holland District Council, which owns and operates the South Holland Centre.
A South Holland District Council spokesperson, said: “With the current bar services contract at the South Holland Centre due to expire in 2026, the council carried out a procurement exercise in line with its Contract Procedure Rules.
“Five local suppliers were invited to tender via an online sealed‑bid portal, and two compliant submissions were received. Bids were assessed against the published price and quality criteria, with Court 1 Ltd achieving the highest overall score and therefore being awarded the contract.
“The council were aware of a family connection between one bidder and a serving district councillor and took appropriate steps to manage any potential conflict of interest.
“No councillors had any involvement in the procurement, evaluation or decision‑making process, and the contract was awarded strictly in accordance with the published criteria which are unpinned by the principles of fairness, transparency and competition.”
The Red Lion Team has said a public goodbye.
“For the last 2.5 years, The Red Lion staff have provided the bar services at the South Holland Centre, just across the Market Place. But all good things must come to an end and the contract was awarded in favour of another provider so Saturday (May, 2) was officially our last performance,” said a post on its Facebook page.
“We want to say thank-you for all those lovely people who we’ve served for functions, comedy nights, pantomimes, tribute shows and films and to all the staff at the South Holland Centre for having us – we’ve loved every minute.
“We also wish the new vendors luck on what has been an amazing ‘side gig’ for us and provided many laughs and hours of fun.”
There was a groundswell of support on the platform, with many people praising the hotel team for the work they had put in since taking over the premises.
