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Warwickshire villagers fight to prevent pub from becoming housing




CAMPAIGNERS fighting to stop their village pub – which has been closed for seven years – being turned into housing, say it’s part of a much bigger battle.

Owners of the Fox and Hounds Inn in Great Wolford have applied for planning consent to change the 17th century watering hole into a house.

But locals, who’ve seen off three previous attempts, say losing their pub would rip the beating heart out of their community.

They are calling for stricter criteria before a pub can be written off as non-viable.

A drive to protect pubs, based on frameworks used by other councils around the country, is being led by Stratford district councillor Sarah Whalley-Hoggins (Con, Brailes and Compton).

Campaigning to bring back the Fox and Hounds Inn, pictured behind, Great Wolford residents Geoff Shuttleworth, James van Helden, Graham Roberts and local Stratford District Councillor Sarah Whalley-Hoggins. Photo: Mark Williamson
Campaigning to bring back the Fox and Hounds Inn, pictured behind, Great Wolford residents Geoff Shuttleworth, James van Helden, Graham Roberts and local Stratford District Councillor Sarah Whalley-Hoggins. Photo: Mark Williamson

A motion proposed by her and seconded by Cllr Ian Shenton first went before council in July, and was agreed at last month’s meeting of the full council.

Cllr Whalley-Hoggins told the Herald: “The pubs in the district are extremely vulnerable and it’s a terrible state of affairs that you can close a pub, declare it unviable and go for planning permission for conversion to houses.

“Pubs tend to sit on large plots of land with beer gardens and car parks, so they’re a developer's dream.

“My intention is that Stratford should make it a developer’s nightmare.

“We cannot have the heart of communities being ripped out in this way and it may be that one of the best legacies we can give future generations is to protect what is quintessentially part of the English countryside.”

She added: “It isn’t just the Fox and Hounds in Great Wolford, it’s every single village with a pub.

“You can’t have these being converted just because they’re a cash cow.”

She cited The Gate Inn in Upper Brailes which closed and in 2021 planning permission was granted for change of use to residential.

“It literally made the owners millionaires overnight with the value of that property now,” she pointed out.

“It’s such a loss and still mourned by the community.”

The 18th century, Grade II-listed Cherington Arms in Cherington attracted interest from developers when it came on the market recently but was bought by villager Martin Craddock, who has pledged to invest significantly in it and preserve it as a village pub and stop it being converted for residential.

Jackie Harding and Steve Allely took over the Fox and Hounds in 2015 and spent £40,000 revamping it, including ripping out the original oak bar and replacing it with a contemporary one, and installing a juke box. They closed the pub in 2016, claiming it was not a viable business. It went on the market for £550,000 in 2018 but did not sell and is still closed.

Ms Harding and Mr Allely’s previous planning application, which sought to convert the Grade-II listed pub into two houses, went to committee in June and was refused.

The fourth and latest round of the ongoing battle will centre on whether the pub can be a viable business or not.

The Fox and Hounds has been a registered asset of community value since 2016.

An independent report by surveyors Morgan & Clarke and authored by expert David Clarke, who also owns and runs his own pub in Dorset, states pubs are often inaccurately declared as unviable, due to mismanagement. It adds: “The perceived unviability of the Fox and Hounds is not rooted in the property itself. Instead, it has arisen from operational obstacles that the applicants encountered and did not sufficiently address.”

More than 230 objections to the Fox and Hounds planning application have been logged.

Co-owner Jackie Harding appeared on TV show Homes Under the Hammer in September, when she was shown refurbishing a flat in Harrow with the aim of selling it for profit.

Villager Graham Roberts, a member of the campaign committee to save the Fox and Hounds, told the Herald: “This could be happening to any pub. We risk seeing a whole stack of pubs going, and what people may not recognise is that these pubs never get reopened once they close to become residential – there is no way back.

“It’s vital our campaign succeeds, not only for the Fox and Hounds but for all pubs within Stratford district. That’s why we’re looking for a fundamental change in the way in which these applications are addressed.”

nMore than 150 pubs in England and Wales were demolished or redeveloped in the first three months of this year and 386 pubs were lost for good last year, according to the British Beer and Pub Association.



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