Latest move to save historic village pub

Local pub campaigners have joined a bid to block the sale of a Herefordshire village pub for use as a holiday rental property.

The Lamb Inn, the only pub in Stoke Prior near Leominster, has been the subject of planning wrangles since it closed to customers in 2018.

It has been on the market for some time as self-catering holiday accommodation at a guide price of £630,000 and is still listed on letting site Airbnb, though does not appear to be taking bookings.

A current planning bid by its owners to regularise its new use and permit some external changes to the pub building has caused widespread concern locally.

Now Herefordshire CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, says it has several grounds for opposing the move.

Pubs have special protection in planning, and in order for them to be repurposed, it must be shown they are no longer in demand or commercially viable.

CAMRA says the pub’s asking price is “not commensurate with its market value as a pub”, nor have the owners shown it cannot be run as a viable pub business.

Yet the owner “has declined to sell the Lamb Inn as a pub business” – despite a plan by the parish council to take it into community ownership, CAMRA says.

The trustees of Stoke Prior village hall also said they “unanimously oppose” the bid to re-use the Lamb Inn, arguing it would make a superior community venue to the current village hall.

Lying 150 yards from the pub, this “is inaccessible up a long staircase and has no car parking, disabled access or kitchen facility”, the trustees said, adding: “Asbestos in the building further complicates even minor improvements to it.”

Changing the pub to residential use “would almost certainly have the effect of removing the Lamb site as an option for us to consider in re-siting the village hall” – a move which “would give significant scope for future-proofing the life of the village”, they wrote.

There have also been over 40 objections to the proposal from individual members of the public.

Consultation on the planning application began in September with a decision due by November 4. But this has yet to be made at time of writing.