Fight goes on to save Warwickshire village pub after planning appeal blow

CAMPAIGNERS are fighting back after a devastating twist in the nine-year battle to save their pub.

The row over the Fox and Hounds in Great Wolford re-ignited in December after the Planning Inspectorate allowed an appeal by the pub’s owners, granting them planning permission to convert it into two homes.

The decision was a shock for campaigners who celebrated in August last year, following a decision to refuse consent to convert the 17th-century watering hole into housing.

More than 60 supporters packed into the Stratford District Council planning committee meeting and watched councillors vote to save their pub.

But now the appeal by the pub’s owners has been allowed, campaigners – made up of residents from Great Wolford, several surrounding villages and the Wolfords Joint Parish Council – have started the process of challenging this decision by serving papers to secure a planning statutory review.

Campaigners list two main grounds for their challenge to the Planning Inspectorate’s decision.

The first is mode of determination because the planning inspectorate used a written procedure whereas, given the amount of local and public interest, campaigners say the challenge should have taken place via a hearing or inquiry.

The second of the grounds listed is a failure to consider two offers in March 2024 to buy the Fox and Hounds pub, as the planning inspector’s decision does not reference these.

Great Wolford resident James van Helden, a key member of the Save the Fox and Hounds campaign, said: “We are dumbfounded and bitterly disappointed by this decision.

“The campaign is challenging this decision by making a claim for a planning statutory review.”

This latest turn of events follows almost a decade of meetings, fund-raising and gathering support and expert testimonies.

Owners Jackie Harding and Steve Allely took over the pub in 2015 and spent £40,000 revamping the Grade-II listed building, ripping out the original oak bar and replacing it with a contemporary one, and installing a juke box.

The pair closed the pub in 2016, claiming it was not a viable business, and it’s remained shut since.

The applicants’ claim that the pub is no longer viable was backed by an assessment by commercial property experts Everard Cole.

But chartered surveyor and landlord David Morgan of pub valuation firm Morgan & Clarke, speaking on behalf of the campaigners, gave evidence of similar community pubs which are thriving.

And villagers were able to point to a number of pubs in the area that at first appeared not viable but which are now thriving, many under community ownership.

Campaigners detailed how the Fox and Hounds was marketed by its owners at an “unrealistic” price of £550,000, despite valuations of £350,000-£375,000.

And although a group of investors, led by a villager, offered £400,000, it was rejected.

SDC councillor Sarah Whalley-Hoggins (Con, Brailes and Compton) described the owners as developers, pointing out the pair had featured on TV property show Homes Under the Hammer.

Since the Fox and Hounds was closed, the villagers have held 50 well-attended pop-up pub events, demonstrating village and wider community support.

Supporters who’ve gone to the pop-up events include Stratford MP Manuela Perteghella and Cllr George Cowcher (Lib Dem, Wellesbourne South).

The campaigners are appealing for donations to help pay the legal fees of their challenge. To contribute, go to the Go Fund Me website and search for Fox and Hounds.