Campaigners 'hugely disappointed' by pub loss

The 200-year-old Ship Inn has been closed since 2020

Campaigners said it was "hugely disappointing" to lose their battle to stop a pub becoming a residential property.

The owner of The Ship Inn in South Walsham, Norfolk, which closed in 2020, had applied for a change of use for the 200-year-old venue so it could be used as a home instead.

The Wellington Pub Company said it had not found a buyer for the building, which it said was no longer viable as a pub.

Broadland councillors approved the plan, despite the Save the Ship campaign group's argument that it should become a pub again.

The campaign group said South Walsham had "almost no facilities"

Campaign chairman Michael Linsdell told a meeting his group had commissioned reports from chartered surveyors which valued the building at £200,000, compared with the most recent marketed price of £350,000.

Its members had aimed to buy the building and bring it back as a pub, while also providing facilities the village lacked, like a shop, and they said they had found a commercial operator to run it.

The group hoped to raise £250,000, with the aim of getting the same amount from the government's Community Ownership Fund, to bid for the pub.

However, the fund, which has helped bring other pubs back into use, was scrapped last year.

In a letter to the council, the agent for the Wellington Pub Company said: "All reasonable efforts have been made to retain The Ship as a community facility, but these have not been successful.

"There is no realistic prospect of the property being sold for continued pub use or alternative commercial or community use."

'The Ship has been sunk'

At the planning meeting on Wednesday, councillors voted in favour of a recommendation from officers to approve the change of use.

"It's very sad," said Conservative Peter Berry.

"If the plug hadn't been pulled on the fund, maybe they'd have had an opportunity [to buy the pub]."

Mr Linsdell described the result as "hugely disappointing".

"Despite all that work - and we genuinely believe The Ship could have reopened and been viable - we have hit the rocks. The Ship has been sunk."