Cheers!

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save their local pub in Okehampton were this week celebrating after plans to build new homes on the site were lost on appeal.

Pub-goers say they are delighted that the Moorcroft Inn has been saved from demolition, despite claims that it was no longer a viable business.

But the decision has come as a surprise for appellants Sylvan Developments, of Exeter, who had remained confident it would win the appeal on the basis of planning officers' recommendations and a previous appeal which was dismissed only on technical grounds.

The company, which now owns the pub site, says it will be considering several different options in the next week, which include submitting another planning application, going to the High Court or selling the site.

Earlier this year, a planning inspector concluded the borough council's reasons for refusing Sylvan's application to build six houses and two bungalows because the pub was an 'important community facility', were unjustified.

Residents living at the eastern end of Okehampton, who started a petition to keep the pub open, are thrilled the latest inspector has taken a different view.

Petition instigator Dave Bird said: 'It stands to reason that the inspector should dismiss the appeal, after all, there should be amenities at this part of town where all the development is taking place.

'All it needs is the right person to buy it and smarten it up and it could be a viable business just like it used to be.'

Mr Bird said there were people interested in buying the inn, which was once a thriving B&B business, as a going concern and it was now the time for them to come forward.

With more than 600 new houses planned for the eastern part of the town and a 28-acre expansion to the nearby industrial estate, members of the borough council's planning committee felt there was potential for the pub to thrive again. There is also a campsite adjoining the site.

Borough council ward member for Okehampton Hamlets Noel Cartwright, who spoke strongly in favour of the pub staying put despite a recommendation by planning officers to approve the housing application, said people living at the eastern part of the town had made their feelings very clear.

'The Moorcroft Inn is the only facility at this end of town which is going to provide a pub and catering for an expanding area,' he said.

'It is very much a community facility that should be maintained, in my view and I am very pleased the planning inspector agrees.'

Speaking to the Okehampton Times earlier this year, previous owners Peter and Nuran Stephenson said they had tried everything to attract people to the inn, including introducing a happy hour and developing the meal side of the business, but had little success.

They were the latest in a line of publicans who had been unable to make a go of it, particularly since the bypass had been built, taking passing trade away from Okehampton.

But in his report, planning inspector Michael Muston said he had no evidence before him on trading viability and it seemed to him that prospects for running a viable public house on the appeal site were improving all the time, as more houses were constructed in the vicinity.

The case was strengthened by the fact that there were no other proposals to provide community facilities as part of the allocations for new housing and or industrial premises.

'The appellants make the point that there are 24 similar community facilities within two miles, but virtually all of these are within Okehampton town centre,' added Mr Muston.

'I have no evidence before me to suggest that the Moorcroft Inn could not compete successfully for local trade with the more distant establishments in the town centre.'

Directors of Sylvan Developments — the company which constructed the Moorcroft Close development around the pub site — say they are 'totally perplexed' that two planning inspectors should have completely different views.

'It also appears that advice given by planning officers' is totally disregarded by the planning committee,' said spokesman Tony Hopper.

'The place (Moorcroft Inn) is an absolute shambles and the majority of people living close to the site do not want it there anyway.'

He said the petition of around 400 names did not reflect the amount of people regularly using the pub before it was closed in November last year.

'The pub has been a dead duck for many years and had the planning inspector looked at the evidence on file there might have been a different conclusion,' he said.