Fashion guru's plan is not all sewn up

George Davies may be a fashion guru but his grasp of licensing and planning laws may not be stitched up properly.

His wife's plan to close their local pub and turn it into a dwelling ("Millionaire's wife wants to shut rural inn", Morning Advertiser, 17 February) once again highlights a common misapprehension ­ that delicensing a pub is simply a question of shutting up shop and bringing in the interior designers.

It isn't that simple.

The main problem is over gaining the required planning permission. Pub premises are in a commercial category under a specific use class in planning terms and consent is required from the local council if a change of this kind is required. That consent is not always readily available, as many retiring licensees have found to their cost.

It is often assumed that because many rural and village pubs have been lost as a result of closure on economic grounds, an application for change of use is a formality. But when it comes down to the last pub in a locality, the rules for planning authorities are slightly more stringent.

They have to be convinced that not only is the pub economically unviable as it stands, but that it would be so under any reasonable ownership. Clearly, if the council feels that a pub has been deliberately run down in order to "prove" that it is unviable, they will not necessarily be convinced that a change of use is desirable at the present time.

The fact that it is the last premises of its type in that particular location will make the council reluctant to extinguish its planning use unless there is very sound evidence that a change is absolutely necessary. Many applications have been refused because the planners are not convinced that "the end of the road" has been reached.

In this situation the feelings of local people do have some influence, although it must be said that planning decisions are taken on other criteria as well.

The problem for many resident pub owners nearing retirement is that they would either like to stay in their pub or sell it at the best possible price and retire elsewhere. In the current climate, it is understandable that a pub with planning permission for residential occupation could have a better market value than an ordinary business

If the villagers do mount a strong campaign, however, Mr Davies may have a fight on his hands that may be more difficult to win than any he has encountered on the high street.