The Traveller's Rest, Long Riston: Council declares developer's rebuild of demolished pub is 'unlawful'

East Riding Council has refused a certificate of lawfulness submitted by developer Wayne Low, who was fined £32,000 in October 2021 for knocking down the 200-year-old The Traveller’s Rest in Long Riston, near Beverley.

Mr Low claims that modifications carried out to the building means it now complies with legal requirements.

However East Riding Council has accused the developer of “simply seeking to pay lip service to the (enforcement) notice but (to) still arrive at their ultimate end conclusion of demolishing the pub and creating residential units.”

They say this is evident in a recently submitted planning application to turn the pub into two homes and build four houses on the old pub car park. The ground-floor doorway would be closed and the extra toilets, bar and cellar which have been installed would be removed.

The council says aspects of the rebuild are at odds with the original pub “most notably” a larger flat roof single storey rear section. This is “much larger than the original (0.84m higher and 0.19-0.59 wider)” and is “considered to represent a significant deviation from the previous structure”.

The area at the back has been sub-divided into two separate gardens with lawns and patios while one of the extra toilets under the stairs is “constrained in height due to its location and limiting its usability”. Council officers describe the cellar as “extremely small – little more than a domestic scale cupboard formed by a partition wall section within the front room of the two storey side section that is now stated to be the pub kitchen.”

It’s the second certificate of lawful development that Mr Low has submitted to the council. The first was refused by the council and later by a planning inspector on appeal.

The only part of The Traveller’s Rest which was left standing following the demolition was a single storey wing which Mr Low turned into a small bar called the Micro Pig.

The council’s report says that the new buildings were both physically separated from the Micro Pig and are in different ownership creating “two separate planning units”.

The council’s report concludes that there is now a breach of the enforcement notice and the development is “unlawful”. Some locals argue the village now has a successful microbar and locals need housing over a second pub. However others believe the application had to be rejected as it fails to comply.