Councillors want closed Devon pub to become community asset

Parish councillors are asking for a boarded up pub to be designated as a community asset.

The Pickwick Inn at St Ann's Chapel, in Devon, has been closed since January and is on the market.

Councillor Stuart Watts said making it a community asset would "buy us breathing space" to keep it as a pub.

Owner and businessman Greg Dyke said he wanted to keep it as a pub, but "no-one was willing to pay the rent".

At a meeting on 12 October, Bigbury parish councillors asked South Hams District Council to make a decision on making the pub an asset of community value.

If granted, it would give the community six weeks to make an offer on the pub, which has been boarded up since July.

Councillor Stuart Watts told the meeting there was "strong" support in the parish for the move, with 157 people signing a petition to keep the building as a pub "and not as a possible housing development".

The petition adds the former pub was "fast becoming a blot on the landscape".

On 6 October, at Bigbury Neighbourhood Plan Committee "worries were expressed that this important community asset could be sold for residential housing development".

Mr Dyke, chairman of Vine Hotels which has a portfolio of 13 properties including Dartmouth Hotel, Golf and Spa, said he bought the Pickwick four years ago as an investment.

He said the Pickwick closed in January after the tenants moved out unexpectedly.

The pub had been offered for sale to the parish council earlier this year, without a response, Mr Dyke said.

He added there had been offers to rent or buy the pub but none had been "anywhere realistic".

"I know what pubs mean for a community," said the former chairman of the Football Association and former BBC director general.

"We do not want it not to be a pub, but the market is terrible.

"We want to keep it as a pub, but no-one was willing to pay the rent we were charging or anywhere near it."

Bigbury has already lost one pub, the Royal Oak, which closed in 2013 and has been converted into housing.

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