Inspector could call last orders on pub as owner seeks permission to convert it into house
A planning inspector will decide if a prominent pub can be converted into a house – leaving a village without a hostelry.
The Cleveland Arms in High Ercall has been closed since 2016, with the village hall instead running a ‘Friday Bar’.
The pub’s owners have had plans to turn the derelict property into a home refused by Telford & Wrekin Council.
The decision was appealed and planning inspector David Cross will now determine the pub’s future. Two of the main issues Mr Cross will consider is the need for a pub in the village and the alternative provision.
At a planning inquiry held on Tuesday, applicant John Hickinbottom said that since the pub’s closure the village hall service was reduced from Friday and Saturday nights to just one night due to a lack of demand.
“This is what we found when trading is that the only time the pub had any customers worth turning the lights on was on a Friday night for one-and-a-half hours,” he said.
“It’s not viable to run it.”
Telford & Wrekin Council planning officer Andrew Gittins said that the village hall service was not an equivalent and was “incomparable” to a pub.
