Town pub’s new signage passed

A planned new look for a historic Herefordshire pub in a prominent spot has been given the go-ahead – but there’s a catch.

Birmingham-based Valiant Pub Company applied in December for planning consent for new signs and paintwork at the Queen’s Arms in Bromyard High Street, which closed last summer.

Its application showed the ground floor exterior repainted dark grey, with the frames of the front door and bow windows in white.

A new hanging sign in the same two colours was to project from the first floor, while the name of the pub would be hand-painted on the front wall, replacing the former raised gold lettering.

Bromyard Town Council backed the proposal, on condition lighting also proposed at the rear did not disturb the occupants of the flat above.

But Herefordshire Council’s unnamed principal building conservation officer objected that an application for “advertisement consent” at the grade II listed building would require listed building consent (LBC) also.

Planning officer Kam Roopra said that following a site visit with the officer, “it was confirmed that the works are acceptable in principle”, and have now been approved.

“The applicant has been advised to submit the necessary LBC application accordingly,” she said.

Meanwhile a separate planning application to approve changes to the pub’s internal layout, along with a bid for listed building consent for that work, for which Ms Roopra is also the case officer, remain undetermined, though the revised target date for these of February 12 has now passed.

Valiant was asked when the pub might now reopen.