The decision to refuse homes to be built on Ye Olde Dun Cow site in Cowbit has been appealed.
Market Homes believes there are grounds for South Holland District Council’s decision to be quashed and the Planning Inspectorate will hold a hearing on July 8.
Meanwhile, Cowbit group The Campaign to Save Ye Olde Dun Cow has vowed to maintain its opposition to Market Homes’ plan for nine homes on the cleared site.
A spokesman said: “We are trying to organise a meeting with Market Homes to discuss a way forward with them in an attempt to acquire the site or even work with them to develop the site for the village community.
“We are working hard on producing our business plan and we will continue consulting with the residents of Cowbit every step of the way. We are not doing this for us. We are doing this for the residents and village of Cowbit.”
The council turned down Market Homes’ application last October on the basis that the firm had failed to demonstrate “there is no demand for continued use of the site as a public house, or that a public house on this site would be financially unviable”.
The case was complicated by the council listing the site on its Community Asset Register during the planning application procedure. Buildings or land can be nominated for inclusion on the register if they further their community’s social well-being and are likely to continue to.
The listing of the Dun Cow site – the first of its kind in South Holland after the inception of the register last September – was appealed and reversed after the local authority admitted procedural mistakes. Financial figures were produced which suggested that viability for a pub was highly unlikely.
The Campaign to Save Ye Olde Dun Cow said: “We are considering our legal position with regards to the distric t council removing Ye Olde Dun Cow from the Local Asset Register.”
The run-down pub, which closed several years ago and had a collapsed roof following an arson attack, was demolished earlier this year.
John Escott, of Kent firm Robinson Escott Planning, has lodged the appeal on behalf of Market Homes.
He said: “It seems plain to me that the benefits which would accrue from the residential development of the site would far outweigh any harm that would occur given that the non-viability of public house use is likely simply to result in the site remaining a vacant and undeveloped brownfield site.”
- The district council’s cabinet has approved changes to handling of future applications for listings on the Community Asset Register.
