Pub conversion 'risks losing only community facility'

The pub has been vacant for five years

A plan to turn an empty pub into a house has been recommended for refusal as it would mean losing the area's "only" potential community facility.

The Belah Bridge Inn, at Brough Sowerby, Cumbria, has stood vacant for five years and an application has been submitted to convert it into a three-bedroom home.

Applicant Lucy O’Donoghue said regardless of how hard they worked during the summer, it was "increasingly challenging" to pull through the winter lull.

Westmorland and Furness Council has been recommended to refuse an application, after planners said there was "insufficient evidence" to show it had been properly marketed beyond November 2019.

Planning officers said: “The proposed change of use from public house to a private dwelling would cause the loss of the only remaining potential local community facility or rural resource in Brough Sowerby."

A report added not enough evidence had been submitted to show the pub could not succeed under the management of "suitable custodians", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The applicants said it has been ‘heart-breaking’ not to be able to pass the business on to a new team and have it stand empty.

Ms O’Donoghue added: "Sadly if it remains empty it will be problematic for us to sustain the building."

Objections

Plans to convert the building into a house were refused in May 2023, and this application was submitted after an application to list it as an asset of community value was refused.

Four neighbours objected to the plans to turn the pub into a house, along with Brough Sowerby Parish.

It stated that aside from Kirkby Stephen, the Belah Bridge Inn was the only public house on the route from the A1 at Scotch Corner to the M6 at Tebay.

“Consequently, the opportunity for the public house to develop business from vehicular traffic is not to be underestimated”, the parish stated.

The plans will be discussed on 8 May.