Villagers unite over pub homes plan
It is a sad yet increasingly common sign of the times – rural pubs at the hub of communities being sold off for housing.
Now residents in South Staffordshire are among the latest to launch a battle to save their local following the news the only pub in their village could be turned into homes.
The Vaughan Arms in Lapley, near Penkridge, was closed more than a year ago but its owner insisted the inside was being stripped out for refurbishment.
Now PH-UK Inn Pubs has applied for planning permission to turn it into a four-bedroom house.
And they want to build another five-bedroom property on the car park.
A protest will be held in the village tomorrow.
The potential loss of the pub follows the closure of Lapley Post Office, a threat to remove its only phone BT box – despite the fact mobile reception in the area can be poor – and an Oxford University study that ranked Lapley seventh among the most deprived areas across the country for villagers' ease of access to important local services and facilities.
Businessman Dominic Allen, a 42-year-old father-of-two who has lived there for more than seven years, said today: "This application confirms our worst fears.
"There are suspicions that this was the long-term plan all along and we are determined to fight it. The pub is the last facility left in the village – it is a vital focal point.
"We are organising a protest meeting over the proposal which is the type of event that would normally have been held in the pub but will now have to take place in the village church instead because it is the only place left.
"We do not need new homes here. There are already eight on the market that are not selling."
The parish council has lodged an official objection to the planning application. District councillor Roy Wright, who has lived in Lapley for 53 years, said: "The pub is almost 400 years old and has played a vital role in village life.
"There has been a disturbing erosion of facilities over recent years."
PH-UK Inn Pubs is run by Denise Healey.
Her husband Mike declared last year: "We want to give the village the pub it deserves."
But he later confessed to the Express & Star: "We do not have the money to move forward with The Vaughan."
