A public meeting is to be held to try an give the community in Waltham Forest a say over the future of their favourite places.

Next week, Waltham Forest Civic Society will host a meeting at the Hare and Hounds in Leyton to discuss an attempt to register it the borough's first recognised Asset of Community Value.

During the meeting the Civic Society's will try to complie its own list of Assets of Community Value (ACVs) which it hopes to put to the council for consideration.

Under the Localism Act, the government introduced new powers for communities in England to nominate valued facilities such as pubs as an ACV.

From 2012 local authorities could choose their ACVs after they were nominated by community groups.

This initiative allows residents’ groups a period of up to six months if an ACV building is put up for sale to consider options for saving the their chosen registered asset.

Katy Andrews of the Waltham Forest Civic Society said: "We were planning to hold a meeting anyway, because one of the aims the Civic Society has set for ourselves this year is to draw up a list of possible Assets of Community Value.

“When Rita Acharya, the landlady of the Hare & Hounds, asked us how she could get the pub listed as an ACV, it was a marriage made in heaven.”

Twenty-five voters are needed to sign the statutory petition requesting the Council to consider listing the pub.

Speakers will include Claire Cain, national Campaigns Manager for the Campaign for Real Ale, on the growing threat to local community pubs.

The meeting is at the pub in Lea Bridge Road on July 24 and will begin at 7.30pm.