Campaign backfires as house plan approved for historic pub

The Eagle Inn, at Skerne, which opened as a licensed house in 1822 and closed in 2004, was only one of only 11 in England not to have a conventional bar or even a serving hatch.

The Campaign for Real Ale tried to save the pub, but its members were accused yesterday of “shooting themselves in the foot” by starting the process to get it listed.

Originally owner Angus Naylor wanted to redevelop the pub, adding a 30-seat restaurant and new entrance.

But Camra objected saying while it accepted the need for more amenities, it didn’t want to see internal walls ripped out and the pub’s historic interior destroyed.

Ward councillor Jonathan Owen, who spoke at yesterday’s meeting at County Hall in Beverley, said the restaurant proposals had been the pub’s “best and only chance”.

He said Mr Naylor had appealed against the grade two listing and in the 10 months it took for that to go through his backers had dropped out leaving him with a building on his hands which he couldn’t convert as he wished.

Coun Owen said: “Personally I think they (Camra) should stick to what they are good at, introducing and preserving local beers and ales.”

But Alan Canvess, former chairman of the Hull and East Yorkshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, said they hadn’t had a fair hearing: “We acknowledged it couldn’t exist as a pub in its current state and supported the addition of a B&B and restaurant.

“We wanted an amendment – not for the application to be thrown out entirely.”

The irony was that the pub – said to be too dilapidated to save – would now be preserved in its original state.

Mr Canvess said: “He’s doing what we wanted him to do – the only difference is it won’t be a pub.”

Mr Naylor said: “I submitted my application in November 2005 and on November 25 found out it was a grade two listed building.

“My original idea was to open it as a pub, restaurant and kitchen and B&B.

“We’d have all been enjoying it if Camra had stayed away.”

He added: “It’s unviable for it to be a pub in this day and age.

“Cheap supermarket alcohol has put paid to it reopening in its original form.

“Sadly Camra shot themselves in the foot in the end. I now have to make it work for me and get it on the market as a house.”

The decision was made at a planning committee meeting at East Riding Council yesterday.

Planners had recommended approving the conversion stating: “While the Eagle Inn has obvious significance as a rare form of public house, the interest appears to be more to the unusual method of operation (no bar) and its plain, unimproved historic layout.

“The proposed scheme respects the character and architectural and historic interest of the building and is therefore considered acceptable and provides a satisfactory solution to the future use of this building.”

Among those to object was Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland. Mr Mulholland, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, described the Eagle Inn as “one of the last remaining examples of a simple, rural pub with a historic form of pub-planning and operation that has otherwise disappeared from Yorkshire.”

In a letter to the council, he said village pubs provided “the backbone of many communities, encouraging sociable and responsible drinking.”

However there were also nine letters of support for the proposals, including two from Skerne.