Closed pub remains community asset, judges rule

The White Lion was last used as a pub in 2013

A council was correct to designate a pub that has been shut since 2013 as a community asset, judges have ruled.

The White Lion in Crays Pond, Oxfordshire, closed in August 2013 and was bought two months later by Satwinder Sandhu, who intended to turn it into an Indian restaurant.

In December that year, Mr Sandhu applied to use it as a home instead but permission was rejected by South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC).

The authority also secured an order preventing its sole residential use and listed it as an Asset of Community Value (ACV).

An ACV is a building or a piece of land that is used to further the social wellbeing or interests of a local community, such as a shop, community centre, pub or library.

Listings last for five years and, if not renewed, an asset is removed from the register after this period of time.

Mr Sandhu appealed the council's most recent ACV listing from 2024 to the First-tier Tribunal, arguing it was unviable to use the building as a pub.

He also stated there was no "realistic prospect" of it being used by the community within five years, adding that no credible community bid had been offered for it.

But the failure to successfully appeal SODC's decision means it will be listed as an ACV until 2029.

The Crays Pond Community Group has said it was interested in bidding for the pub, despite Mr Sandhu saying he would not sell it to them.

The group said on its website that it "must consider our next steps and will seek [residents'] support in the coming months."

The judges said the aspiration of finding a new tenant or buyer who would reopen the White Lion as a pub was "realistic".