Derbyshire pub named after dambuster hero to be demolished

Plans from Ralane Properties Ltd, to demolish the former Sir Barnes Wallis pub in Maple Avenue in Ripley, were unanimously approved by the Amber Valley Borough Council planning committee.

Four five-bedroomed homes will be built in its place.

Nearly 200 residents signed a petition and submitted letters opposing the plan, alongside a rival petition submitted by the developers also signed by nearly 200 residents supporting the ‘regeneration’ of the site.

Councillors did not debate the plans during the virtual meeting on October 12, merely moving that it should be approved.

During the meeting, Sam Salt, agent for the application, said the pub had been sold a number of years ago by Greene King to the applicant who has ‘significant experience in running food and drink establishments with several successful operations in Ripley town centre’.

He said: “The applicant has made a significant investment to provide a new opportunity to the community but despite these efforts the business has continued to operate at a financial loss and the applicant was advised by their financial advisers to close the business at the start of January 2020.”

Mr Salt said the business was ‘no longer profitable’ and submitted accounts to the council to show this.

He said a petition had been submitted, signed by nearly 200 people, in support of the application, ‘which shows the local community do not wish to see the site stand vacant, to eventually become an eyesore’.

Mr Salt said the proposal provided economic and environmental benefits to the community and was a sustainable development.

Before the meeting, Coun Ron Ashton, who represents the area, also opposed the plans due to the proposed ‘loss of a community facility’.

Coun Ashton serves on the planning committee but left the meeting during the pub plans item due to having a ‘personal prejudicial interest’.

A petition opposing the plans had said: “To ensure this facility is not lost to housing or an alternative use that does not benefit the locals and surrounding area, I have signed and completed the form below to support the appeal for the premises to be retained and a licensed venue that is available to the community.”

Other objectors wrote: “If it can be shown that the pub is a valued facility whose loss would reduce the community’s ability to meet its day-to-day needs, then the application should be refused.

“The public house was deliberately run down with the intention of being able to state that it is not profitable.

“There is no evidence to show that the public house would not be viable.”

The council asked the applicant to prove that the pub could ‘no longer be sustained, in order to justify its loss to residential development’.

It concluded, based on the accounting information submitted, that ‘prior to closure of the public house there was an insufficient demand to justify or sustain its use’.

The authority said: “The accounts for year ending July 2019 show only a marginal profit of £1,382.00 and on this basis the business was clearly not profitable from its most recent period of accounts.”