Historic pub could be bought by community after demolition plans rejected

It is the next stage in the case of the historical Henry Jenkins pub in the village of Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon, which was saved from demolition yesterday 
by Harrogate Borough Council after planning members voted against a proposal to knock it down and build four houses on the site.

Richard Sadler, from Save the Henry Jenkins Committee, said: “We are absolutely delighted. It has been a long, hard battle to get to this stage but the hard work starts now.

“The pub could be bought as a private business by someone who wants to invest and bring it back as a pub with food like it used to be, and as a B&B, which we don’t have in the village.

“The other is a community buy-out and that is something that we have looked at in some detail and the idea of people in the village buying shares, bringing in a manager and staff and providing employment.

“We could bring in other facilities that we have lost in the village, like the sub post-office, or we could have a library and artisan and craft shops.

“There are exciting opportunities as to what we could do but the important thing is, if we lose that pub it is gone forever.

“It will not come back as a community asset and a vibrant community is more important than four houses.”

According to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), there are 70 community owned and managed pubs across the UK.

The council rejected the application by site owner, Dave Fielder, on the grounds that loss of the pub would be detrimental to the community and insufficient evidence of it being marketed.

He said: “We are very disappointed. All we can do is continue to market the pub as we have done for four and a half years and see if anybody comes forward to buy it or put in for an appeal.”