Real Ale drinkers are protesting against the refusal by an Officer of Weymouth & Portland Borough Council to list the Albert Inn in Wyke Square as an “Asset of Community Value.” The landmark Localism Act 2011 contains an important provision to list pubs and other local community essentials, giving a measure of protection against change of use applications.
Wyke locals have been alarmed that the freehold of the Grade II listed Albert Inn, a pub for some 160 years, is currently being offered for sale by Punch Taverns, with “potential for residential conversion and development.”
Weymouth resident Rob Cheeseman has recently reopened the Wyke Stores, near the pub, after a year of closure. The shop has been well received and supported by locals. Rob would like to use his experience and knowledge of the Wyke community to work with a group of local people to buy the Albert Inn- aiming to keep it as a local pub and to save the historic hostelry from being redeveloped.
He is being supported by the West Dorset branch of the Campaign for Real Ale [CAMRA.] The pub is currently still open, although the lease has expired. More than 50 pubs have already been registered in the UK as community assets.
Alex Bardswell, Wyke resident and CAMRA member, is an Albert regular. “I’ll put money into the Albert Inn and know others who will do the same,” Alex says, “it’s the only pub in Wyke Village, with lots of potential.”
West Dorset CAMRA Chairman Dave Harris has written again to Weymouth & Portland Borough Council, asking for the refusal to list to be reconsidered. “Other branches of CAMRA have had somewhat less difficulty in getting premises listed under the Localism Act,” Dave Harris writes to Community Facilities Briefholder Coun Andy Blackwood. “Is it really local to have to walk for nearly a mile round trip just to pop-out for a drink in the evening- what does locality mean,” questions Mr. Harris.
He points out that the nearest other pub to Wyke Square is the Wyke Smugglers, well out of the small and intimate village area, downhill to a busy main road, nearly half a mile away- a very different environment. “Wyke Regis has three well distributed pubs at the moment- the Ferrybridge in the south, the Wyke Smugglers in the centre and the Albert Inn in the north- just about right,” he suggests.
Finally, the CAMRA Chairman attacks the wholly arbitrary limit of 700 metres, which is not specified in the Act. “I would expect something around 400 metres to be a more reasonable distance for a small community to preserve locality,” Mr Harris concludes. “But as I understand it, distances are not part of the legislation, merely the Borough Council’s local interpretation of some rather loose wording in the Localism Act.”
The original decision was made by Hilary Jordan, WPBC Spatial & Community Policy Manager, under delegated powers. It is the first such application that has been made to Weymouth & Portland Borough Council under the new Act.
“CAMRA nationally aims to get 300 UK pubs listed as Assets of Community Value this year,” comments CAMRA spokesman Michel Hooper-Immins. “Listing a pub as an Asset of Community Value with the local council, means a pub cannot be sold on without the local community being told, allows the Borough Council greater ability to refuse planning applications from developers and even gives the local community up to six months to put in a bid to buy the pub,” Michel Hooper-Immins continued. “In the case of the Albert Inn, the Borough Council’s Officer has set a wholly arbitrary limit on what is considered local, whereas no distances are in fact mentioned in the Act of Parliament. CAMRA intends the Albert Inn to continue as a local pub and we support the efforts of local people to buy it.”
“Most pub-goers believe that a well-run community pub is as important to community life as a Post Office, local shop or Community Centre. CAMRA is delighted that the Government has recognised this and empowered communities to protect their pubs,” comments CAMRA Chief Executive Mike Benner. “By listing their local, communities are ensuring that if the pub is under threat, there is a much-needed extra layer of protection which ‘stops the clock’ if it is put up for sale. With 18 pubs closing every week and pubs becoming increasingly a target for developers, this new power is a massive step forward in the battle to protect our valued pubs.”
Rob Cheeseman believes the Localism Act is a force for good. “It is contributing to breathing more life into local high streets and villages,” he says, “which have been decimated by large national and multi-national companies, firstly in large out-of-town retail parks and secondly by abandoning what presence they have in high streets when times get tough, as Punch Taverns are doing to the Albert now.“
Michel Hooper-Immins
(Campaign for Real Ale)
