Campaigners battling to try and save their 160-year-old community pub and bring it back to its former glory days have set out their vision after a planning application seeking to turn it into a house was refused.
Proposals to convert the Grade II listed Horseshoe pub in West Rounton, between Northallerton and Yarm, into a house were unanimously refused at North Yorkshire Council’s Richmond constituency planning committee on April 11.
At the meeting, the plans were scrutinised by four objectors, who believed that the venue could still make a community-led pub in the future.
However, questions about the committee process were raised by the owner of The Horseshoe, Stan Taylor, who claimed that he couldn't share his views on why he no longer considered the business viable - saying on arriving at council offices in Richmond for the meeting he had been ushered away from where he could register to speak.
Mr Taylor was told council rules said that he needed to register in advance of the meeting about the proposed change of use of the building, which was registered as an asset of community value following the proposal being unveiled.
Following the council meeting, Rounton’s community interest group (CIG) celebrated the 'victory' and set out its plans now that the proposals for a house were rejected.
This includes the fact that the group are now registered with the Community Benefits Society, which has turned its name into Rounton's Community Hub Ltd.
A spokesperson for Rounton's Community Hub Ltd said: "We have submitted in writing to the council our intention to bid for the pub and this has triggered the six-month moratorium as a society for the right to bid for the Horseshoe Inn.
"We are receiving continued support from Rishi Sunak in his capacity as local MP as we apply for funding through the Community Ownership Fund (COF).
"We also have support from local businesses on the venture to create a community pub by saving the Horseshoe Inn."
The group have said that there will be a public meeting in the future to hear further plans for the Horseshoe Inn.
This is joined by a new website called 'Save the Horseshoe Inn'.
While the Horseshoe Inn plans were turned down, owner Mr Taylor has previously underlined how he supported in principle the sale of the pub to the community.
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Speaking in the aftermath of the planning committee decision, Mr Taylor said the majority of Rounton’s community interest group (CIG) had “jumped on the asset of community value bandwagon as the fashionable and interesting thing to do with no moral conscience and little or no financial risk to themselves”.
Mr Taylor added: “I think their concern is much more about housing values.”
He said before its closure the pub had been “kept alive by outside trade to the benefit of locals, most of whom felt they could then pop in very occasionally, and when, convenient to them”.
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