MP asked to help have pub re-opened

CAMPAIGNERS have called on John Howell to help save their local pub.

They have written an open letter to the Henley MP asking him to support moves to protect pubs like the White Lion in Crays Pond, which closed more than 10 years ago.

The Crays Pond Community Group has campaigned to have the pub re-opened rather than being turned into a home by the owner.

The letter, which is published in this week’s Henley Standard, follows a call by the Campaign for Pubs for a change in the planning laws so that no pub could be sold for alternative use, demolished, or converted until it had been properly marketed for at least a year.

This followed a fire which gutted the Crooked House pub near Dudley in the West Midlands just days after being sold to a private buyer for alternative use. It was dubbed Britain’s “wonkiest pub”.

The White Lion saga began in 2013 when Satwinder Sandhu bought the former Greene King pub. He was living there unlawfully until he was ordered out by the High Court in 2019.

The campaigners made a successful application to South Oxfordshire District Council to have the pub made an Asset of Community Value, meaning an owner cannot sell a property until the community has been given six months to make an offer, although it doesn’t have to be accepted.

Mr Sandhu challenged this but his appeal was rejected by the council.

The pub was derelict in June 2021 when travellers moved on to the site as part of the boundary fence had collapsed.

Mr Sandhu announced he was putting the pub up for sale and the community asset process was triggered.

Following this, the Crays Pond Community Group became a community interest company so that it could make an offer.

Group spokesman John Densum said: “After getting a valuation by a professional we placed an offer in the region of 300,000.

“He then withdrew the property from sale. In spring this year, we offered a further £50,000 but didn’t hear anything other than knowing that the offer was received.

“We felt that the Campaign for Pubs letter to the Prime Minister encapsulated the problem which so many pubs face, not in terms of fires but developers waiting out the toothless ACV, so everyone gets fed up eventually and they walk away and then planning permission is granted.

“There was no ‘For sale’ sign when it was put on the market originally in 2013 and the asset community value process takes quite a while. The community would have had to have known in advance of the original sale to have applied for it in time.

“The White Lion today still stands empty, deteriorating, depreciating and neglected, its grounds unkempt and uncared for and subject to occupations by travellers. It is no longer the beating heart of our village.”