Fresh plans to turn former pub into home
BBCPlans have been put forward to turn a derelict pub into a house.
The Cleveland Arms in High Ercall has been closed since 2016, but previous attempts to redevelop the site have been rejected by Telford and Wrekin Council.
The pub's owners, John Hickinbottom and Susan King, said there had been no interest from people wanting to reopen it as a pub in the last decade.
In a planning application they said the only interest they had received had been from developers who were interested in using the site for housing.
The pub was built between 1841 and 1851 and a tenant farmer was its first innkeeper, documents show.
The pair took it over in 2013, but said they were forced to close it three years later after finding "serious structural defects".
They made several attempts to redevelop it, but were refused by Telford and Wrekin Council, which was backed by planning inspectors on two occasions.
In 2018 a planning inspector gave the pair an ultimatum to reopen the pub or leave and they moved out the following year.
The pub had been listed as an asset of community value, which justified the argument it should remain a pub, but that status ran out in 2022, Hickinbottom said.
He also said the site had been broken into by thieves earlier this year and the cost of repairing and reopening the pub could be £290,000.
He described the pub as "unoccupied and unviable".
A period of public consultation has started, allowing people to have their say on the plans.
This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.
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