Hopes that Plungington Hotel will reopen this weekend after successful community campaign to save it

That's what the new tenant of the Plungington Hotel in Preston had to say, after it was confirmed the pub would be reopening after a community campaign to save it.

The pub - which has been closed since October - was taken over by Winwick Taverns on Thursday, and the new landlady hopes to have it reopened this weekend.

In April, Admiral Taverns, said it was looking to dispose of the site as it "no longer had a long term sustainable future" with the group.

This spurred the local community into action and 1,600 people joined a Facebook campaign looking at ways to save the pub and prevent the building and land being sold for development.

>>>Read about the campaign here.

Last week an Admiral 'to let' board went up at the pub, and it was re-listed for £25,000 rent per year.

This was shortly followed by an announcement on the community Facebook page that it had been taken over by Winwick.

David Morse, director of Winwick Taverns, said they had been approached by Admiral last week to run the pub, after a sale fell through at the last minute.

The pub is still owned by Admiral, and will still have ties for all drink categories.

Mr Morse said: "We've worked with Admiral on a number of sites and they asked us to come in last week. We will go in as the tenant and do the best we can.

"We're giving the community what they want. This is a fresh start, and now it's all hands on deck to get the place reopened.

"We've had to source everything from furniture, TVs to pictures for the walls.

"But we're getting deliveries all the time and we've had a lot of community interest. People have been knocking on the windows, asking when we're opening."

Mr Morse said the "very experienced" Lis Hampshire would be the new landlady.

Lis herself has taken to the Facebook page to announce her new role, alongside her husband Paul, and to appeal for bar staff.

She wrote: "Hi, my name is Lis and my husband is Paul, just letting everyone know we are working every hour to get this amazing pub open again, please be patient as there is so much to do, we have deliveries coming everyday, we are hoping to be open very soon.

"I will keep you all updated regularly and super excited to meet you all."

She later wrote: "Update on opening the Plungy…things are progressing well, we are hopefully opening this weekend..fingers crossed."