Landlady’s bid to stop conversion into homes ‘Not everyone wants pubs filled with loud music and students’

A landlady is launching a bid to save a small community pub from being converted into homes.

LJW Developments Ltd submitted an application to the city council to transform the Two Doves in Nunnery Fields into two houses earlier this month.

But Katrina Maclean, who runs the New Inn in Havelock Street, is hoping to thwart the plans and get the pub reopened.

“I just don’t think it should vanish without a fight,” said Ms Maclean. “It’s been a pub for such a long time.

“Small community pubs are really vital for people to meet. Not everybody wants to go to one in the centre of town filled with students and loud music.

“A lot of people want to go out to have a nice beer and talk – there aren’t many places like that any more.”

Ms Maclean is concerned that Canterbury could be left with pub chains, like Wetherspoon, which she believes are less “caring” than the likes of the New Inn and Two Doves.

She says she will contest the proposed change of use of the building by arguing to the council that it is an “asset of community value”.

If she is successful, she hopes the owners would allow it to reopen or put it on the market.

“In which case I would make a bid for it,” Ms Maclean continued. “I’ve had more than 300 people contact me about it; so there’s definitely a demand for it to be kept.

“The people who come into the New Inn need the pub and I think those at the other end of town will be denied this experience if the Two Doves was to go.”

Bob Britnell, who works on behalf of the developer, says the owners of the pub decided to sell the building after struggling to turn a profit for several years.

Its trading loss of £740 in 2013 rose to more than £9,100 in 2017.

“Trading loss doesn’t include finances and insurance and other overheads, so it’s making a loss before it’s even paying those,” said Mr Britnell.

“It’s not traded at a profit for the last five years. It’s one of those old-fashioned town pubs that was struggling to survive.

“It’s not a money maker. The days when the local working man walked to the pub and had a few pints are gone. If a pub can’t provide food, it’ll struggle.”

He believes the only way for it to be viable is if it had its own parking spaces or room for a restaurant area.

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