Pub to be turned into house

Permission has now been granted for a change of use at The Beehive Inn in Upper Basildon

A LONGSTANDING village pub in Upper Basildon is to be turned into residential housing.

The Beehive Inn closed its doors three years ago but has been the centre of a wrangle between the owners, Nigel Elkes and Karl Fischer, and West Berkshire Council, who initially refused an application to convert it into a home.

The council argued that the business had not been marketed properly, whereas the owners disagreed and claimed it was not financially viable.

Three planning applications have been submitted since 2007, and finally following a successful appeal in November, permission has now been granted for a change of use for the dwelling.

Mark Thackerey, from Walsingham Planning, the agent working on behalf of the owners, said the idea was to retain the existing look of the property.

“The building is an old one but it has a lot of 20th century additions and we want to keep all the original work. Some of it dates back to medieval times; there are 15th century timber frames inside,” he said.

“What we are proposing is to knock down the 20th century additions and to replace them with something a bit more sympathetic to the look of the house, we had no intention of knocking it down.

“This is just an application to take down the less attractive parts of the building.”