Love Your Local launches in London

Stella Artois has launched a major new campaign to celebrate pubs as the heart of the community.

The Love Your Local initiative will see one lucky pub win £8,500 in prize money, as well as a holiday for the licensee plus a £5,000 bursary to be invested in a community project of their choice.

The launch at the Duchess in Battersea, London, was attended by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Jason Flemyng and Stuart MacFarlane, president of InBev's UK and Ireland operation.

MacFarlane said he hoped the London-only campaign would re-position pubs and place them back at the heart of the community as well as promote responsible drinking.

"The hero of is this is not Stella Artois," he said. "The hero of this is the local pub. We're trying to recognise the best of the pubs in the 32 boroughs of London. But it's not about how clean your toilet is, how good your car park is, it's about how good you are at integrating your pub into the community."

He went on to praise the Duchess, whose urban poetry nights boasts Jamie Oliver among its fans, saying: "This is going to be a very lucrative pub in three years time."

Flemyng, who also acts as an ambassador for The Duchess said: "I'm vaguely known for being in films about South London gangsters who talk about 'community' and 'family'. But I don't see why community and family is always linked to gangsters!

"This pub is progressive, eclectic and has its feet firmly in the community - if the barman notices one of the old boys downstairs hasn't been in for three days he'll phone him or go round his house - that's what being in the heart of community is about."

Love Your Local is launching a website where people can vote for their favourite pub until September. Ten finalists will receive an undercover visit by the judges, who include The Publican​'s managing editor Daniel Pearce and a representative from Stella Artois, to judge just how community-focused the pub is.