12:00pm Tuesday 16th March 2010
By Emma Streatfield
A PARISH council fears that a one-word change in Swindon Council’s planning policy could spell the end for its village pub.
Plans have been submitted by the owners of the True Heart pub, in the High Street, Bishopstone, to redevelop it as housing.
Bishopstone Parish Council has been told a change in the wording of a policy in the Swindon borough local plan means developers can argue that one pub already in the village is enough.
Bishopstone parish councillor Ian Thomas said such plans, if passed, could threaten the future of village pubs around Swindon.
However, Swindon Council says the changes to the local plan were out of its control, but that officers would be recommending the refusal of the planning application.
Mr Thomas said: “We think it’s ridiculous. There’s no reason why a village shouldn’t have two pubs.
“It will be a travesty for the village.
“This policy is meant to be there for the protection of community facilities, there has been a massive outpouring of objection not just from the parish council but people in the village.”
Bishopstone currently has two pubs, the True Heart and the Royal Oak The True Heart closed last summer after the tenants moved on and the owners were not available for comment last night.
The new planning application will be discussed by planning committee members at a meeting on April 6.
Prior to 2005, the council’s CF6 planning policy said that in order to get planning permission developers had to prove a pub was no longer viable as a business and that there was an alternative pub in the village. Since the most recent planning enquiry, the wording now reads ‘or’ instead of ‘and’, meaning applicants only have to show there is another pub in the village.
Mr Thomas said: “If they approve this the floodgates will open.”
He said the parish council planned to fight the application based on a claim that the Royal Oak serves a different clientele so was not a proper alternative.
A council spokesman said: “The council will be recommending that the application to turn the True Heart into housing is refused when it’s considered by members of the planning committee next month.
“It’s true that policy CF6 in the Local Plan gives developers more grounds to argue that one pub in the village is enough, but Swindon Borough Council’s more robust policy was watered down by a national Planning Inspector when our Local Plan was considered at an enquiry in 2005.
“We had no choice but to change the wording.
“Having said that, we believe there are still good grounds for refusing the application, which is why that’s being recommended to the planning committee.”
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