Residents in Cowbit are making an eleventh hour bid to save their only pub – Ye Olde Dun Cow – from becoming a housing development.
The Save Our Pub campaign was launched in earnest after the man who offered to restore the fire-wrecked Dun Cow and run it as a pub – Peter Mandell – posted letters around the village at 5am on Tuesday.
Chairman of Cowbit Playing Field Commitee Jonathan Matthews said until laminated letters appeared on lampposts, most villagers believed no such offers had been made and the only option was a planning application for nine homes there.
Mr Matthews said: “We thought it was all done and dusted. We have been making people aware of this as soon as we heard from Mr Mandell.”
Cowbit Parish Council recommended approval of the plans from Market Homes Ltd and South Holland District Council will deliver its verdict on July 29 after extending the consultation period.
Mr Matthews describes the pub as “the heart of our community” and says it could be saved under the Localism Act and listed as a village asset.
Cowbit Parish Council chairman Trevor Tyrrell said the parish council was aware of Mr Mandell’s offers to buy the pub through his company Peter Lind and a partner, but it was not theirs to develop as the site was sold by the vendor to a company paying a higher price.
Coun Tyrrell agreed the pub was an important asset, but said it closed before the fire through lack of trade and it may have carried on trading if more villagers had supported it then.
Mr Mandell, from Moulton Seas End, is operations director for Peter Lind, a building and civil engineering company.
He said: “I believe that it is fair to say that the appropriate offer value for the burnt out pub was the price it would be worth in complete and working condition minus rebuilding costs. I contend that the offer finally accepted by the vendor was based on the site’s enhanced value as a housing development plot.”
One villager commenting on the district council website described it as “such a shame” the village was not told of offers on the site to keep it as a pub.