Bridgnorth pub apartments and ‘village hub’ plan thrown out

Plans to build new apartments at a Bridgnorth pub have been scuppered after council planners described the scheme as an ‘overdevelopment’.

Owners of The Swan Inn in Knowle Sands hoped to get outline planning permission to knock down a function room and build a mixture of “open market housing, affordable housing, pub letting and owner accommodation” at the rear of the pub.

In a supporting statement they said the scheme was part of plans to make the pub business financially viable, which included partitioning the ground floor of the existing pub building as an “evening and weekend pub”.

“We are requesting an assessment by the local authority of the feasibility of the replacement of the function room with a larger two storey block of one and two bedroom apartments,” the statement said.

“This will justify and finance reopening of an improved more energy efficient pub as well as the creation of services more suited to community needs.

“The function room is dilapidated and underpinned which prevents subsidence insurance cover on the rest of the building.”

They also detailed plans to create a village shop in another part of the building as part of what they describe as a hub development for Knowle Sands, adding the housing development would create “on-site demand” for the business should it be approved.

“There has not been a local shop in this community for around forty years, and nor would it be financially viable to open one either, therefore we are not expecting the shop to be a major source of additional income, but part of a wider diversification, and the variety of items offered will be small initially and can increase if there is demand,” they added.

They added that the scheme would address rainwater runoff onto the B4555 and said community infrastructure payments (CIL) raised on the development could be used to improve road safety near the site.

But Shropshire Council planners rejected the plans, saying the new building would dominate the existing pub, and the development would be too intense for the site.

They added the development, which would have also seen 18 car parking spaces created to support the residential scheme, would be “an intensification of use not reflective or acceptable within the rural village setting”.

“The proposed scale and number of dwellings is concluded to be an over development of the Site, a dominant addition to the existing pub building and not a suitable location for development of this nature,” said a decision notice issued by Shropshire Council.