CRESTFALLEN councillors could hardly bring themselves to sign off the beginning of the end for a village pub but eventually accepted they had “no alternative”. 

The closed Reformation pub on Horsepond Road, Gallowstree Common, south of Wallingford, is set to be extended and converted into a surgery for vets. An outbuilding will also be demolished with two houses, one three-bed and one four-bed, set to be added. 

The pub has been the subject of no fewer than six failed applications by Kidmore End Parish Council to turn it into an asset of community value, which would have protected its current use.

Read more: Thames Valley Police shuts down rave near Chinnor

The viability of running a pub there would also affect whether a change of use could be permitted but Brakspear, the brewery behind the application, submitted a report stating that no sound business case could be made.

Having lost the battle to save the pub, Kidmore End Parish Council supported the change of use but objected to the additional housing. Agent Deidre Wells said the new project would only be viable if it included the two houses.

She said “it is always sad to see an old pub decline and cease to trade” but that despite owners Brakspear making “significant efforts” to turn the tide, there would be “no prospect of pub use resuming” even if the application failed. 

Councillor Peter Dragonetti, whose wards include Kidmore End and Whitchurch, spoke as the ward member on South Oxfordshire District Council, said efforts to protect the pub had been “thwarted by the efforts of the owner” but acknowledged “it has some difficulty with viability”, partly due to its small size.

The addition of what he called “super-executive houses” added to his view that it was “very disappointing to see this development come forward with no alternative uses or original use being continued”. 

South Oxfordshire’s planning committee eventually granted permission by six votes to four with one abstention – and it was hard work to even get that far.

Once questions and debate have finished, councillors on planning committees are asked to put forward a proposal, a decision one way or the other that then gets voted on. 

It is rare that no one steps forward to offer one but the room fell silent on his application, meaning planning chair David Bretherton was obliged to ask for a vote in line with what planning officers had recommended, to grant permission. 

It was seconded by Councillor Ken Arlett, from Henley Residents’ Group, Henley-on-Thames. He said: “It was not the one that I was going to support but having listened to the speakers, I think we have no alternative.

“It is sad. I have been in the Reformation numerous times, when they have had really good landlords, and it has been absolutely thriving but there are another 30-odd pubs within a four-mile radius.

“It has seen its day. It is so unfortunate.”

-

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok

Got a story for us? Send us your news and pictures here

List an event for free on our website here