THE owner of a closed country pub in Much Marcle is fighting back after county planners refused to allow parts of it to be used as a house of multiple occupation.

Elliot Thomas, a serving parish councillor, applied to Herefordshire Council in late 2024 for retrospective permission to change the staff and bed and breakfast accommodation at The Slip Tavern, to a house of multiple occupation use, which in planning terms is as a different use class to that of a pub/restaurant.

The changes to the building had already been made during the summer of 2024, shortly after the pub had closed its doors to customers – though the bar itself and customer facilities remained unaltered.

For reasons, which remain unclear, the council only validated his application in January this year – before refusing it two months later, on grounds that the change of use “restricts the capacity, functionality and ability for this public house to expand as a valued social and community facility”.

Now Mr Thomas has appealed against the refusal to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate.

His grounds for appeal explains that permitted changes and an extension to the pub to create tourist, and staff accommodation, had already been approved in January 2016, and with this work complete, the pub with rooms reopened a year-and-a-half later.

In April 2021 Mr Thomas was told to apply for a five-year HMO licence, which the council granted, it adds.

After the pub closed in April 2024 no new tenant could be found, while at the same time, the council had doubled the business rates on the property, according to the appeal statement.

The council then demanded Mr Thomas apply for permission for a formal change of use of the accommodation areas – which he states and was led to believe was merely a formality.

His appeal claims the council’s argument for then refusing the retrospective bid “makes no sense” as the 2016 permission already allowed these areas to be used as letting bedrooms and a flat.

Separately, “the public house part of the building remains unaltered and currently unoccupied, and is still on offer to prospective tenants”, it says – though it notes: “There are currently two other public houses in the small parish.”

Meanwhile Herefordshire Council have now refused to renew the property’s house of multiple occupation licence.

The Planning Inspectorate has confirmed that a formal written appeal is under way.

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