We, as long standing and loyal customers of The Ship Ashore, Willen, Milton Keynes, would like to appeal to Mitchells and Butlers PLC to re-instate Liam Faherty as manager with immediate effect.  

On Monday 28th September 2026 Liam was sacked by his line manager. The reason that was given was 'This is personal, I don't like you'.  As Liam hadn't reached his 6 month probation period, the line manager was free to fire him without a valid reason. 

Many of us have been loyal customers of The Ship Ashore for over 30 years. We have seen many managers come and go. Some good, some bad, some dreadful. On many occasions, by 9pm on a Friday and Saturday night, the pub was nearly empty.  Many local residents had not frequented the pub for many years. 

Just over 5 months ago, after a refurbishment, Liam Faherty was installed as the new manager, along with a mix of new and old staff. From the first day that Liam took over, he threw himself into making The Ship Ashore one of the best local pubs around. He worked tirelessly for the first 3 weeks, not taking any personal time off at all. 

He spent time introducing himself to the locals and put a lot of effort into attracting many new customers of all age groups. Many local residents who had not been to the pub for years started to return. He ingratiated himself into the local residents association, supporting their efforts to raise funds to improve the local area. Within a few weeks, the pub was busier than it had been for years, and the takings will no doubt, reflect that.

It is now a lively and vibrant place to be. There have been popular themed evenings, and a recent 80's night saw more money taken in one evening, than anytime since before the pandemic. The pub is now always busy and this is down to Liam and the great team of staff that he has put together. 

Liam is a consumate professional  who also treats people and situations with calmness and understanding. He is the most popular manager that the pub has had in years. He has become a member of our village community and has befriended many of the locals.

You can imagine the shock and anger  that we all felt when we were told that Liam had been sacked from his position as manager,  basically because his line manager doesn't like him.  His loyality, hard work, popularity, raising the pubs profile, and increasing the pubs profits, did not appear to even get taken into consideration. 

We feel this is extremely unfair, not only to Liam, but to the great team of staff that he has managed over the past few months. All of their hard work has basically been ignored because of one managers personal issues. 

In this day and age where pubs are struggling and shutting on a daily basis, it does make us wonder how Mitchells and Butlers can be happy losing such an asset to their business, because that is what Liam is, an asset. 

In the past few days since Liam was sacked, the word has spread, and many people are saying that they will now take their business elsewhere, thanks to a manager with a personal vendetta.

We the undersigned, therefore appeal to Mitchell's and Butlers to reinstate Liam Faherty with immediate effect. Our community, the pubs future,  and their bottom line, depends on it.