Former community pubs minister Bob Neill secures agreement from Lidl over Porcupine pub
On Thursday 20 June, Neill who is MP for Bromley where the pub is located, met with a Lidl to discuss the future of the site. At this meeting, Neill secured an agreement that the supermarket will abandon plans to immediately demolish the Porcupine building. Instead, the supermarket chain will submit a full planning application that will cover both demolition and redevelopment.
This planning process will give residents an opportunity to submit comments on the plans to Bromley Council’s Planning Department.
Neill said: “The Porcupine pub is an incredibly precious community asset in the very heart of Mottingham Village and it is important that residents are given an opportunity to comment on Lidl’s planned redevelopment while the pub still stands.”
Liz Keable, chair of Mottingham Residents’ Association, said: “This is great news for the many hundreds of residents who have been campaigning so hard to save the Porcupine. I am grateful that our local MP has made Lidl see that it is in everyone’s interest to subject its demolition and redevelopment plan to a full and democratic application process.”
The pub had been owned by Enterprise which sold it to the supermarket chain in a private deal. This caused outrage among Neill and local residents who held a rally in May against the plans, which was also attended bu current pubs minister Brandon Lewis. Enterprise defended the actions claiming that the pub had seen a high level of criminal activity in the past.
