Campaigners lobby to save rural pub
Campaigners from a Yorkshire village met with councillors yesterday in a bid to save their local.
The Save Our Burton Arms Exploitation Redevelopment (SOBER) campaign has urged council chiefs to refuse developers permission to change the use of the building.
The Burton Arms in Burton Fleming closed a year ago. Owner Stephen Hepworth planned to convert the building as part of an expansion of a neighbouring care home, that he also owns, but was refused permission.
Tony Gibson, SOBER campaign manager, said the loss of the pub has torn the heart out of the village.
"The village needs the pub immensely. The community used to get together and news used to spread through the pub. It was the true focal point," he said.
But Hepworth, who has owned the Burton Arms for three years and runs several other licensed premises, said the pub had been forced to close due to a lack of business and spiralling costs.
"We had everything on to make the pub work and nothing attracted people in," he said. "It was just met with apathy from the locals. I think a lot of village pubs are until they actually close and then they realise what they've lost."
Hepworth said the pub had tried a carvery, quizzes and advertising in the local press and had put the leasehold of the pub up for sale but received no serious interest.
He plans to continue is his bid for planning permission for the home, or to develop the land into holiday lets or housing.
"We're going to reapply, appeal and then we'll get it. But it won't reopen as a pub. It would deprive other locals of a viable business," he said.
However Gibson plans to present councillors with evidence that the pub will be better-patronised if re-opened.
"It's the long term sustainability we are interested in. Not just a quick fix. We want to put it on an even footing so five,10, 20 years the Burton Arms will be there," said Gibson.
A similar campaign group in Otley, West Yorkshire, celebrated a success last week when council chiefs refused developers permission to knock down the Summer Cross pub and build 14 homes in its place.
