Pub run by Paul Hollywood’s wife should become a community centre, locals say
VILLAGERS are campaigning to have a Grade II listed pub partly run by Paul Hollywood’s wife turned into a community resource instead of a house.
Locals in Smarden, Kent, are banding together in hopes of buying The Chequers Inn to run as a community project after fears it could be “lost forever”.
The pub has been in the hands of the Spalding family for many years – including long-serving landlady Melissa, who married celebrity baker Hollywood in September.
However, Glenn Spalding, the pub’s owner, submitted plans in January to turn the historic site into a “single dwelling” home.
Ashford borough council is set to decide on the proposals at a meeting tomorrow. Almost 50 objections have been lodged against the plans, while 240 people have backed the Smarden Community Pub group’s ambitions for the site.
Russ Phipps, 60, one of the group’s seven members and a regular the pub, said: “The group came about when we realised we could lose our pub forever.”
In recent years, Smarden has also seen successful fundraising campaigns to revamp its cricket pavilion and construct a new village store.
Chris Holder, 59, another member of the Smarden Community Pub group, said: “It might be a small village, but there is only one certainty: if we don’t bother, then it won’t happen.”
The Chequers Inn was listed on Rightmove for £999,995 in April last year, but efforts to offload the site have proved unsuccessful.
The application for conversion, which is under consultation, states how the pub struggles to compete with nearby rivals The Flying Horse and The Bell.
It says: “With three public houses serving such a small community and with a changing approach to drinking in the 20th century, it was always going to be difficult for all three to survive.
“There is no obvious other commercial use for the building, so the decision was made to seek a residential use.”