The owners of the Deer's Leap have said they are not going to let the behaviour of a few people stop their plans to create a community pub.

The inn on Penhill Drive was vandalised just over a week ago when David Mundy smashed 43 windows. He has since been jailed.

Iain Watson, who runs the tavern with his partner Liz, said: “It’s just part and parcel of being a landlord."

“I’m very laid back, I just get on with it,” he added.

“It’s not the first time that incidences have happened to me. I’ve had a knife pulled on me at my other pub.”

Iain and Liz also run The Bear in Marlborough and will open The Globe in Highworth later this month.

“You take it in your stride,” Iain added.

“It’s a minority of people within Penhill which drag the area down.

“I think their days are getting numbered because the community is starting to not tolerate them,” he said.

The couple have been running the Deer's Leap since February and regularly host events for the community including monthly family discos, live music, karaoke nights, and weekly bingo.

Iain said: “More than 90 per cent of people in Penhill are absolutely amazing, lovely people. They’re so genuine as a community.

“As long as the community spirit is strong and people stick together, then the whole of Penhill can only get better.”

Both Iain and Liz have praised the community for helping them through this incident, including those who helped with cleaning up the smashed glass, a local band who offered to play a fundraising event for the repair costs and a builder who offered a day of his time to help with repairs.

“We’ve been very, very grateful,” said Iain.

“If you ask for help from anybody here they would bend over backwards, even if they didn’t have two pence to rub together they would help you with whatever they could.

“And that’s the community spirit in Penhill,” he added.

The couple say they will not let this episode stop their future plans, which include an upcoming Christmas party for local children and the introduction of a kitchen next year to allow them to offer Sunday roasts.

“It’s about doing stuff for the community,” said Iain.

“This is a community-led pub and that’s exactly what we want for Penhill.”

He added: “We’ve worked really hard to turn this place around and we can see the light at the end of the rainbow but there’s little things like this that pull us back to ‘ah it’s nasty, it’s a rough pub, don’t go there’.

“It’s not true.These are one-offs. We will deal with it, we will fight through and we will come out the winner at the end,” Iain said.