Landscaping business to move into former pub
A Staffordshire pub that has changed ownership five times in 22 years is now helping a landscaping business to expand.
The Hollybush Inn at Trysull closed in January 2020, just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic led to all pubs being required to shut during the first national lockdown. Before its 2020 closure it had been an Indian restaurant for just over a year.
A hard landscaping business is now set to move into the Ebstree Road premises after South Staffordshire Council’s planning committee approved plans for a change of use on Tuesday.
A report to Tuesday’s planning committee meeting said: “The existing business is currently located at Dimmingsdale nursery – Midland Stone Paving. The company has outgrown their current premises and the applicant currently employs five staff and anticipates that the re-location will see the addition of a dozen jobs in the next 12-18 months.
“The pub has changed ownership five times since 1999. In recent years, two pub company owners have disposed of the site, indicating that the pub was not generating sufficient income to warrant retaining the site in the tenanted estates. There was also a trail of tenants in recent years who failed to build the business into a commercially viable unit with the pub being sold three times in three years, the most recent being an Indian restaurant which commenced trading in October 2018 and closed on the 5th of January 2020.
“The site was re-marketed in March 2020 by three specialist pub agents and there was (a) good deal of interest, but only towards a residential use.(Given) the variable performance of the pub in recent years and the current trend for the community in general to be visiting pubs less often, combined with the table covers (Covid requirements) and the pub in being in an isolated position from the small hamlet of Dimmingsdale, and the existence of other public houses nearby such as The Greyhound, it is not realistic to expect the existing pub to become viable.”
The former pub building will be used as an office and sales area, while the first floor will remain as a residential area. The former beer garden and play area at the back of the site will become a paving and stone storage area.
A new customer display area will be created, leading off the car park, as well as a machine store to the back of the pub. Security gates and fencing will also be installed. The remaining 8,100 sq m of land to the south of the site will become a wildlife area.
