Plans to replace pub with gospel hall approved

The Tram Inn in Allensmore closed about 15 years ago

Plans to demolish a country pub and replace it with new business units and a gospel hall have been given approval.

Hereford Gospel Trust applied to redevelop land at The Tram Inn in Allensmore, Herefordshire, which is based beside a railway line.

The pub, which closed about 15 years ago, was unsuccessfully advertised for sale between 2020 and 2022 but was now in a poor state of repair, the application said.

Full planning permission for the proposal was granted.

A car repair and bodywork garage alongside the pub, which has also ceased trading, will also be knocked down under the proposal.

The new single-storey gospel hall, based in the pub car park, is to be used for worship by south Hereford Brethren community.

The application had received a "strong" objection from one local resident, Jefferey Hancorn, who said the pub was "a community asset and as such should remain as a public house".

Property services firm Sidney Phillips also objected to the proposal and stated a local client was “more than willing” to buy and reopen the pub, but the offer of £200,000 was twice rejected as being too low.

Planning officer Elsie Morgan concluded that, with “suitable alternative pub premises in the locality”, there had been “limited public concern at the loss of the pub”.

There would be “economic and social value associated with the proposed mixed use of the site”, which has “an established commercial use," she said.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.