‘Protect our pubs’
PUNTER TELLS HILLINGDON COUNCIL TO FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE SET BY TOWER HAMLETS IN SAVING WATERING HOLES FROM DEMOLITION
ONE Hillingdon man is so fed up of seeing local pubs close he has called on the council to take steps similar to those carried out in Tower Hamlets – and protect pubs from demolition.
His call comes as one local watering hole, The Carpenters Arms, has been closed and sold by Greene King, and another, The Angel, is earmarked to be turned into a Muslim centre.
When approached, Greene King said it could not specify who The Carpenters Arms had been sold to or whether it would reopening as a pub, for confidentiality reasons.
Steven Busby lives in Hayes End and, having been a member of two darts teams in his time, he can list the pubs that have closed in recent years.
Among many were The Heath Tavern, in Byron Parade, The Paddington Packet Boat, in High Road, Cowley Peachey, and The Load of Hay, in Villiers Street.
Some of the pubs have been demolished, the land used for flats, or simply sit empty.
Mr Busby said: “There’s too many closing around here – there won’t be anything for anyone to do.
“Pubs help people feel more connected to the community.”
He was particularly critical of plans to turn The Angel into a Muslim centre and said others felt the same.
He said: “During a meeting I attended at the Hayes End Community Centre there was a lot of local opposition to the change of use into a Mosque (Islamic Centre).”
These complaints include inadequate parking, disruption to traffic and no connection with the needs of many long-term local residents.
He added: “The Borough of Tower Hamlets is protecting its pubs. They recognised the problem and are listing them to save them from being demolished.”
“Maybe Hillingdon Council should follow suit. England is famous for its pubs worldwide.”
Mr Busby said he would like to see pubs being sold on the condition they would be reopened as pubs in the future.
A Hillingdon Council spokeswoman said the local authority’s new planning policy was more robust and made it harder for planning applicants to remove pub buildings from community use.
The local authority does not collect information about pubs that have closed in recent times, but the spokeswoman said residents can take steps to protect them by requesting that a site is designated as an Asset of Community Value (ACV).
She said: “While this designation cannot stop a particular ACV from closing, it can influence future property and planning decisions relating to that site.”
As for The Angel, the application to turn it into an Islamic centre will go before the council’s planning committee at a later date, which has yet to be decided.
Hayes Muslim Centre trustee Kashif Shaikh said The Angel would be usable by the community, including for education, events and classes.
He said it was his hope that everyone, including non-Muslims, would be able to use the rooms for meetings if they wished.
Mr Shaikh said he understood the heritage aspect, but at the same time said the building had been neglected.
He said: “We want to keep the fabric and the layout. We want to preserve the life and enhance it.”
The group needs £1.6 million to buy the building and has so far raised £1m.
A Campaign for Real Ale spokeswoman said local councils can always do more to help pubs.
She said: “That’s why we have been encouraging local councils to make specific provisions for pubs in their local plans and have ranked all local plans in England and provided councils with a model local plan for pubs.
“Our Save Our Pubs campaign is calling for reform of business rates as pubs pay 2.8% of the business rates bill but only account for 0.5% of total business turnover, which is an over-payment of around £500m by the sector each year.”
“If we want to save pubs, we need a full review of business rates to fix the fundamentally unfair system.”