Decision on rural pub conversion

A bid to turn a rural Herefordshire pub into a home has been refused – because not enough effort has been put into keeping it going as a pub.

The Jolly Frog, on the A4113 near Leintwardine on the Herefordshire-Shropshire border, closed to customers in December 2018, after a new manager concluded it could not be made to work.

A plan put forward in May this year by London-based investment firm Animatrix said subsequent efforts to market it as a “public house/restaurant”, had yielded “no interest at all”.

However, Herefordshire Council has now told Animatrix partner and chief executive Stuart Lawson that it had found “insufficient evidence to justify the loss of this community facility”.

It said the submitted evidence of the effort to marketing the pub was “wholly insufficient with respect to duration, method and verification of a guide price which reflects the site’s use as a commercial enterprise and community facility”.

Losing the pub would “harm the social well-being, vitality and viability of the settlement of Leintwardine and its rural hinterland”, the council said.

The plan received one letter of support and one objection locally. Leintwardine parish council did not object.

Mr Lawson could not be contacted to provide a response.