Pub loss would harm village, say campaigners

The Ship Inn has been closed for more than five years

People campaigning to stop a pub becoming a residential property have warned its loss would "impact the vitality and prosperity" of their village.

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

A local campaign group, which wants to turn it into a community hub, argued it had been on the market at an inflated price to put off potential buyers. However, a spokesperson for the pub said "all reasonable efforts have been made" to keep the site as a community venue.

A report for Broadland Council's planning committee said The Ship – which closed in 2020 - was no longer viable as a pub and that it should approve the proposal.

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

The plan to change the use of the building was controversial for some residents in South Walsham, a Broadland village which had a population of 822 in the 2021 census.

Owned by the Wellington Pub Company, the venue has a small bar area and restaurant with space for 16 people.

The building has been shut since the first Covid lockdown - but in 2023, the Save the Ship Inn Community Benefit Society Ltd was formed.

Its members aimed to buy the building and bring it back as a pub, whilst also providing facilities the village lacked – like a shop.

It 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.

Unfortunately for them, the fund – which has helped similar groups bring pubs back into use - was scrapped last year.

Whilst the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it would be "introducing new powers to help communities take control of valued community spaces like pubs" – the group does not have the funds to make a purchase itself.

'Price is too high'

The campaigners also said they believed the pub's owners had set an "excessive" price.

"Potential purchasers have undertaken assessments but concluded the price is too high to proceed," the group said in its objection to the change of use.

"South Walsham has almost no facilities…without [The Ship] community cohesion will further decline, and impact the vitality and prosperity of the area," it warned.

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," they added.

A property valuer, asked to carry out a viability assessment on the building, agreed.

"Parties interested in continued public house use have been deterred by the size of the pub and the difficulty in balancing the costs of running a full kitchen with the small numbers of covers," wrote John Joseph Keane.

A report for councillors concluded there was "no policy reason" to refuse the change and recommended the application for approval.

The proposals were due to be discussed on Wednesday.