VILLAGERS are celebrating after a developer was blocked from turning their local pub into a house.

When signs for the rural Three Horseshoes pub in Burbage were taken down earlier in the year, a group of residents formed to object the planning proposal.

The owners, Red Star Ltd bought the pub from brewers Wadworth in 2017 and it closed in January 2018. The developer wanted to renovate the pub, make the beer garden private and turn it into a family home.

However the parish council came out in support of keeping the watering hole open for the community and this week planners threw the proposal out.

Burbage resident and member of the support group, Gary Rawlinson, said: “It is good that the council seems to have accepted the argument put forward that the pub could have a viable potential to be successful if the right investment and right people running it.

“The council need to do whatever it can to protect pubs in rural areas.The owner should open the pub up for the community or sell it to someone who believes they can make a go it.

“For small villages a neighbourhood plan is important as it gives residents a say in how they want their village to develop.”

Andrew Fellows spoke on behalf of the Parish Council and said: “The Council feels that with proper management and modest capital injection this important local facility could return to the thriving business it once was. Our recently drafted Neighbourhood Plan shows that for the next five years, at least, we have no need for further housing development. What we do need is a properly run Public House in our village.”

In its application, Red Star stated: “The site has been used as a pub, however recent trade has been declining.Potential alternative community uses have also been considered, however given the site’s location away from the main village centre, and the good provision of existing community services within Burbage village, the site is not ideally located for community uses.The use of the building as a single residential property will fit cohesively into the residential use of the rest of the terrace, and to the character of the wider locality.”

Pic: Gary Rawlinson, Allan Masey, Jim Sprules all Burbage residents.

Coporate director of growth, investment and place Alistair Cunningham said: “The proposed development would result in the loss of a public house within a village, when it has not been adequately demonstrated that the continuation of the existing commercial use or alternative community uses would be unviable.”