Plans to change Derbyshire village pub into a home and two holiday lets

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The former Serendib Sri Lankan and Italian Restaurant on the A615 Alfreton Road through Tansley, has had numerous names over the years.

It was the Royal Oak Inn and then the Matlock Gurkha Inn, however, the site’s restraints and the impact of the pandemic have pushed the owners to scrap the current businesses and start a new venture.

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The owners have now submitted an application to Derbyshire Dales District Council to change the venue into a home and two holiday lets.

One of the holiday lets would be a two-bed apartment on the upper floor and the second would be a one-bed apartment on the ground floor.

The former Serendib Sri Lankan and Italian Restaurant on the A615 Alfreton Road through Tansley, has had numerous names over the years.The former Serendib Sri Lankan and Italian Restaurant on the A615 Alfreton Road through Tansley, has had numerous names over the years.
The former Serendib Sri Lankan and Italian Restaurant on the A615 Alfreton Road through Tansley, has had numerous names over the years.

A decision will be made by the district council in the next few months.

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Documents submitted on behalf of the applicants say the venue has been largely closed since the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.

They say: “There is considered to be very little chance of it being able to reopen for the foreseeable future in a manner that satisfies requirements in respect of social distancing.

“Whilst it has an area that can be made available as an outside beer garden, this is relatively remote from the central bar of the public house.

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“It lies to the rear of the building at a slightly lower level, such that it cannot realistically be overseen and supervised, at all times, by the licensees.

“The building’s relatively restricted circulation space renders it difficult to generate a customer throughput that will render re-opening an attractive proposition.”

The document says the owners bought the Royal Oak in February 2012 and it ceased trading as a pub in June 2016, run by tenants as a restaurant between July 2016 and August 2021 – opening and closing “intermittently” during the pandemic.

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It says the applicants “have been assured, repeatedly, that the business had never proved profitable since the change to a restaurant in 2016”.

They claim attempts to sell the lease of the venue and the property itself have not sparked any interest other than from people who wished to turn it into homes.

The report submitted with the plans says: “Car parking facilities are served by an access that has relatively poor visibility.

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“This limits the scope for any significant expansion at the premises that would attract a significant increase in vehicular traffic.

“Such an investment would, in any event, be extremely risky and unjustified in current trading circumstances.

“The owners do not consider that the public house, like many others at the present time, has a viable future. They have, therefore, no plans to re-open the premises in their previous use.”

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The report continues: “From the owners’ point of view, they have concluded that the premises cannot now be operated either efficiently or economically as a public house/restaurant and that this proposal provides an appropriate way forward.”

Manohar Kunwar, previous tenant of the then Matlock Gurkha Inn, claimed in 2018 that a series of bad luck which had struck the venue was down to a “cursed” three-headed snake statue and ornamental chicken’s foot found on the site.

He had said this included power cuts, gas problems, flickering lights, dwindling customers and bad reviews, all of which he has put it all down to the mysterious items discovered on the premises.

The spooked restaurateur left the objects outside and claimed that business immediately picked up. He was then in talks with a priest to “deactivate” the spooky stash.