The owners of the Queen’s Stage public house have decided to temporarily close the pub, and posted a statement on their website.
In response to the statement by the Queen’s Stage, Effingham Parish Council (EPC) have raised concerns about the posted letter and have asked for it to be removed. For details see here.
Background information regarding the history of the site, when the site was designated an Asset of Community Value, and when planning applications were submitted and approved is provided below.
In April 2018, Effingham’s Neighbourhood Plan was formally adopted by Guildford Borough Council (GBC). The Neighbourhood Plan noted that the Sir Douglas Haig Public House (as the Queen’s Stage was then known) was included in Guildford’s list of Listed Buildings. Policy ENP-C1 included the Sir Douglas Haig Public House as a site of community importance, as a public house and 7 rooms available for overnight stays.
In January 2019, GBC (as the Local Authority), designated “The Sir Douglas Haig Pub (excluding the living accommodation upon which Council Tax is paid) This property is now known as The Queen Stage Public House” as an Asset of Community Value, see List of Assets of Community Value. Such designations are meant to last for at least 5 years. The owners have a right of appeal at the time of designation.
In 22 July 2020 planning application 20/P/01128 was submitted for the Refurbishment and extension to existing public house (A4) and conversion of 7no. room hotel (C1) to 2no. short let apartments (C1) and 1no. 1 bed residential apartment (C3) in addition to the erection of 4no. 2 bed and 2no. 3 bed dwellings to the side and rear. Demolition of existing coach house. The planning application was approved 18 February 2022.
Parking on this road is a nightmare. Pub was not that special just overpriced and over hyped. The space on the pub site needs redesigning so that off road parking is available at all times. The Sir Douglass Haig had historical value and could have been developed into a really good attraction to stay and enjoy with some new housing development that fitted on with the wider needs of the public in the local area.
I come from a place where housing development was rampant and blocks of flats were popping up everywhere. I was hoping that Effingham would be different but the developers are encroaching rapidly and will eventually overdevelop.
The Asset of Community Value listing is designed to protect our village from overdevelopment.
The new pub owners just want to make money from the site and have no concern for how they will irrevocably change the area.
The AoCV should be upheld to protect our village from overdevelopment.
It would also be helpful if the car park were reopened as a village resource.
Thank you for this helpful article that sets out the facts clearly. Does EFFRA have a plan view of how the AoCV area relates to the overall site please? I’d like to see how the former Douglas Haig site was split between the A4 areas associated with the pub and the C1 areas associated with the former coachhouse. It is not legal to include the latter in an AoCV listing, but currently I have no idea how much of the TQS’s enabling scheme has been put at risk.
Their refurbishment inevitably meant loans, the costs of which have probably skyrocketed. Given Effingham supported AoCV listing so the pub could become available to the community again, there are local jobs at stake, and most people were delighted that the pub reopened with its contrasting offer to (rather than directly competing with) The Plough), surely everyone can now focus on removing any doubts over the saleability of the enabling housing asap?
“SCHEDULE 1
Land which is not of community value (and therefore may not be listed):
2b iii) it, or part of it, is a hotel or is otherwise principally used for letting or licensing accommodation to paying occupants;”
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/2421/schedule/1/made
The problem is that once a site is designated as a ACV there is no way of removing that designation until it expires in February 2024. The only way it can be challenged is by claiming it was wrong when it was designated in 2019, eg because it was a hotel (which cannot be listed) as opposed to a pub (which can). That would presumably involve showing that The Haig, as it was in 2019, got most of its trade from residents as opposed to locals using it as a pub.
There’s no point in campaigning for EPC or GBC to do something it cannot legally do.
Bottom line : people have lost their jobs and the the community has lost ( hopefully temporally ) valuable asset, because of red tape and bureaucracy.