Bid to make pub a community asset fails

A bid to list a North Yorkshire village pub as an asset of community value has failed.

The Coore Arms, in Scruton, shut in February after its landlord said he could not continue to lose money on the business.

Fearing the premises could be turned into housing, Scruton Parish Council nominated the pub to become a community asset with North Yorkshire Council.

However, council officers concluded it did not meet the requirements to be added to the register.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the parish council's application said 19 people had offered to buy shares in the property and a steering committee had been formed to look at its purchase.

Asset of community value status would have given the community extra time to organise a bid to buy the property if it was put up for sale.

Council officers acknowledged that the Coore Arms had operated as a public house for more than 40 years and recognised that it had hosted a range of events over the years, including wedding receptions, funeral wakes and meetings for local groups.

However, the report concluded there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that these activities represented a significant community use beyond the normal operation of a pub.

It found that many of the examples provided were unsupported by documentary evidence, while comments from the owner suggested several activities had either declined significantly, attracted only small numbers of people or had stopped altogether.

Officers also noted that only one person followed through after initially expressing an interest in buying shares in a proposed community purchase.

Although the council accepted that the Coore Arms had a long history in the village and had only been closed for several months, it ruled that the nomination failed both legal tests required for the status.

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