Bid to convert Northumberland village pub into a home refused by council planners
Plans to convert a Northumberland pub into a home have been refused.
An application had been submitted for the conversion of the Blue Bell Inn at West Mickley, near Stocksfield.
Applicant Max Carr wanted to turn the vacant pub into a three bedroom home.
A planning report on the applicant’s behalf stated the property has been actively marketed and had three tenants since July 2021, with the pub closing at the start of April 2025.
“The failure to secure a willing purchaser provides substantive evidence that the existing use is no longer economically viable in its current form,” stated the report.
However, the bid has been refused by Northumberland County Council’s planning department under delegated powers.
Officers considered the proposed development to be unacceptable as a matter of principle in relation to the loss of a community facility.
The application had attracted 12 letters of objection from local residents.
Principal planning officer Rachel Campbell reported: “The Local Planning Authority understand that the public house was bought by the applicant in 2025 and was immediately closed, with no intention by the applicant to run it as a public house. Therefore, it is not possible to say whether it could continue in the same use, as a public house, should someone else have purchased it or if it continued to be leased.
"The Local Planning Authority are therefore unable to support the change of use of the public house to one residential dwelling as insufficient information and evidence has been provided to demonstrate that there is no reasonable prospect of the use being retained.
"It is noted that the agent has referred to an appeal decision which was allowed in Derbyshire for the change of use of a public house to residential and holiday let use and to the recent permissions granted for the change of use of the Railway Inn at Fourstones, Northumberland into residential use.
"The Local Planning Authority have reviewed these cases; however, each application is determined on a caseby-case basis and on its own merits. The circumstances at The Railway Inn at Fourstones were different to those under consideration at West Mickley and are not directly comparable. This current application has been assessed based on the information and evidence submitted, which is considered to be insufficient.”