Former pub is set to be bulldozed and built over

THE COACH HOUSE HAD BEEN LOSING MONEY FOR YEARS, NOW THERE IS AN APPLICATION FOR MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT

A ONCE popular pub which has not reopened since lockdown is set to be bulldozed.

The Coach House, which was formerly the New Inn, in Horninglow Road North, closed its doors for the final time during the first lockdown in March 2020 and has not reopened since.

A marketing report has blamed its downfall on: “High taxes on beers, changing demographics, rising business rates, fuel, property, taxation, lower disposable income (due to higher household bills and mortgages), the smoking ban, changing social trends, fiercer competition from off licenses and supermarkets selling cheap alcohol and most recently the covid-19 pandemic which has hit the hospitality business the hardest.”

The pub has had a chequered history since 2013 when Burton firm Marston’s sold it on after being unable to find a tenant to lease the place.

Since then it has had four publicans move in hoping to turn it around, including the current owner. One tenant lasted just six months due to the business not breaking even,w thought they had a discounted rental rate, a report to the council has said.

Premier Midland Developments has now applied to East Staffordshire Borough Council for permission to bulldoze the boozer and build a new building to provide a mixed-use commercial and residential space along with parking.

A planning report says despite reducing rent costs, the pub was still losing money.

“Over the last few years the applicant has been letting the public house under the market rent price in order to find and retain a tenant.

“The applicant has been letting the site at an annual rent cost of £14,000 when the market rent for a public house of this size is around £25,000, this has resulted in the applicant barely breaking even,” it says in the report.

The was added that the pub occupies a small portion of what is a large site, the current layout does not therefore make optimal use of this highly sustainable site, hence the decision to bulldoze the building.

It added: “The most viable option is proving to be the demolition of the main building and the ancillary building to the rear to make way for the redevelopment of the site for mixed use purposes, comprising commercial and residential units single building, which is anticipated to be three stories tall with commercial being on the ground floor and residential on the upper floors.”

There would be a total of 24 residential parking spaces, alongside 14 spaces for the commercial use.

A decision is due to be made in the next few months.