Old pub to become nursery and studio after housing row
Plans to turn a vacant Oldfield Park pub into a nursery and community facility have been welcomed by residents who fought to save it.
Following their campaign to stop it being converted into housing, the Victoria Hotel was listed as an asset of community value.
Now Arena Global Management has new plans for the Millmead Road venue. Its proposals say the building will be shared by dance studio Scala Studios, which needs to relocate due to the redevelopment of the Scala building, and Green Shoots nursery, with the community allowed to use the site at certain times.
“The owner of the building has no plans to use the ground floor for any other purpose and will be giving the applicant a 15-year lease to support this and give comfort to the owner in security of tenure,” the plans say.
Some 150 residents came together to list the pub as an asset of community value, which would have given them the option to buy it if it came on the market.
Their main aim was to “press the pause button” on the plans and show what the building meant to the community.
Arena Global Management’s plans said residents looked at turning the Victoria into a community pub, a co-working venue and cafe “but have had no local interest and have now concluded that these are not viable options”.
“Despite being heavily marketed, there has been little interest from the wider market place in renting the property as a drinking establishment. Those that have had a look have concluded that the site is not economically viable – especially within the current Covid climate.”
Iqbal Hamiduddin and Liz Alvey, who led the campaign to save the pub, said: “This proposal appears to be consistent with the asset of community value listing recently placed on the ground floor of the Victoria, and could provide a great step forward for the old pub. We encourage all local residents to look at the application and support it if they are happy with what is being proposed.”
Bath and North East Somerset Council will decide the fate of the application.