Council asked to think again over ‘declining’ North Herefordshire pub

A renewed bid has been made to turn a “dilapidated” Herefordshire former country pub into a home.

The Jolly Frog, on the A4113 near Leintwardine on the Herefordshire-Shropshire border, closed to customers in December 2018, after a new manager concluded it could not be made to work.

A plan put forward in May 2022 by London-based investment firm Animatrix said subsequent efforts to market it as a “public house/restaurant”, had yielded “no interest at all”.

However Herefordshire Council told the firm last August that it had found “insufficient evidence to justify the loss of this community facility”, which would “harm the social well-being, vitality and viability of the settlement of Leintwardine and its rural hinterland”.

Animatrix has now resubmitted a bid to convert it into a four-bedroom home, saying: “There has been no local support or interest in maintaining the public house as a community asset,” nor does it have any potential other use “that would be of benefit to local residents”.

Three successive tenants “have left at short notice despite paying low rent”, the application statement adds.

The building is now in “poor” condition with a damp problem, according to a supporting letter from property firm Jacksons of Ludlow.

It said it had received an “extremely limited” response to its efforts to sell the property, even after dropping the asking price.

Leintwardine already has two pubs in the village proper, the Lion and the Sun Inn, Jacksons pointed out. And while it continues to seek a buyer for the pub, only one viewer has come forward this year.

“The concern is the poor condition of the property with no real prospect of a buyer in the current climate,” it said.

“The building condition is definitely in sharp decline and is in desperate need of investment in order to prevent further dilapidation.”

Comments on the current application, numbered 231261, can be made until June 14.