A bit of history
Edward Bolton owns the freehold of The Three Horseshoes.
Martin & Emma were tenants and ran the pub from May 2005-May 2011, following which it became empty.
We formed the Charsfield Three Horseshoes Community Pub Limited in September 2011 as a community group with the aim of preventing the pub being turned into something else (and forever ceasing as a pub), including by attempting a community purchase but only if that proved necessary to save the pub from being lost forever and turned into, say, housing.
Fleurets valued the pub for us at £160k (in the condition of the time).
In 2012, Edward Bolton marketed it for £289,000 without success.
From late 2011 into 2012, we recruited members and sought funding indications from people from the village and beyond. We were well on the way to being able to make an offer consistent with the Fleurets valuation when we learned that Jerry & Sharon were to take a lease. So, we stopped our campaign – the pub was to continue as a pub. (Edward Bolton and his former ‘planning consultant’ David Houchel have repeatedly claimed that our campaign somehow failed. It did not: we stopped because Jerry & Sharon’s arrival meant that the immediate threat of losing the pub had gone.)
Jerry & Sharon leased the pub from December 2012 to January 2019.
Apart from the flat above being briefly occupied for security purposes, it has been empty, and deteriorating, since then, including being partly flooded because of Storm Babet in October 2023.
Edward occasionally let it be known he would sell for £300k, but did not undertake any proper marketing campaign.
Edward has several times applied for planning permission to build houses in different parts of the pub garden. The most recent was rejected by the East Suffolk District Council in April 2024. Edward did not appeal against that decision.
The pub as an Asset of Community Value, and planning permission
Thanks to Peter Clitheroe (acting on our behalf), the pub is registered by East Suffolk District Council as being an “Asset of Community Value” under the Localism Act. That has two consequences, as follows.
The indirect consequence is that – by operation of the Council’s planning policy SCLP8.1 – neither the pub building nor its garden can be turned into something else (such as housing), and certainly not without having been shown not be viable by having been marketed unsuccessfully for at least 12 months at a price set in conjunction with an independent valuer.
To illustrate the operation of that: The new owners of the Queen’s Head at Brandeston sought planning permission recently to turn that into a house. Their application (to the Council) and subsequent appeal were rejected because they had not shown lack of viability by a 12 month marketing campaign (which is how SCLP 8.1 assesses viability); indeed, they themselves had only just bought the pub (as a pub) so they were a long way from being able to show that. Notably, in rejecting the appeal, the planning inspector did not place reliance on the pub’s ACV designation and looked at whether they had failed to sell following a 12 month marketing campaign at an independent price (which they had not).
What has happened now
As for the direct effect of the ACV designation: Edward Bolton recently (for the purposes of the Localism Act ACV provisions) formally notified the Council of his wish to sell the pub. As it happens, he had been talking about doing that for a while, indicating to us that he would wish to put it up for auction with a reserve price of £300k.
That notification triggered a six-week period in which we could have indicated that we wanted to make an offer to buy the pub. That would have triggered a further period in which we could have made such an offer. However, as above, our purpose has always been to act as a long stop, aiming to raise funds to buy the pub as a community if, and only if, no one else stepped in, and as a way of preventing it being lost as a pub forever. Indicating a wish to bid before Edward had even tried properly to sell it on the open market, would be inconsistent with that. And there is, of course, a big difference between raising funds to save the pub from being lost altogether, and any attempt to raise funds while there might still be other purchasers out there. Against that background our members voted at our recent AGM not to trigger the right to make a bid. We wrote to the Council:
“We welcome Mr Bolton’s intention to dispose of the Three Horseshoes. We will offer him our assistance in that process. Obviously, any sale will be on the basis of its lawful planning use being as a pub, and its status as an ACV. If that leads to a sale, we will enthusiastically work with any buyer to support its renovation and re-opening as a pub.
It follows that we do not wish to exercise the option for a community right to bid on this occasion.
However, if that process does not lead to a sale and if the pub is being marketed in accordance with the Council’s Commercial Property Marketing Guide (including in relation to price) it would be our intention to raise funds and make an offer within the 12 month marketing period. In that way, we continue to see ourselves as the fall-back purchaser stepping in only if needed (for the purposes of policy SCLP8.1 of the Council’s Local Plan) to forestall any application for planning permission to cease the pub use.
To emphasise: the fact that we are not wanting to exercise the community right to bid should not be seen as in any way undermining our continued commitment to support the renovation and re-opening of the pub including by stepping in if necessary to offer to buy it. Our preference though remains for a third party to purchase, renovate and re-open it in accordance with its planning and ACV status. For us, community purchase/ownership is a last resort, not a preference.”
It follows that Edward can now freely market the pub for sale, including through an auction if he wishes. We welcome that.
Our hope remains that someone will buy it from him to restore and re-open as a pub. Would-be purchasers should realise though that they are buying it as a pub to restore and operate it as a pub. No-one should buy it thinking they can then get planning permission to redevelop or turn it into something else, such as housing. The Queen’s Head experience makes that clear. (Just to clarify: the Queen’s Head decision shows that anyone wanting permission to change the pub away from that use would need to demonstrate lack of viability by 12 months marketing – and then failing to sell – at an independently agreed price; if a new purchaser then marketed it in that way, we would step in at the end of the 12 month period to make an offer at that independently agreed price if no-one else had made an offer.)
The best option remains that someone else buys from Edward and restores/opens the Three Horseshoes as a pub. But if they don’t, then we would plan to make an offer at an independently valued level before the end of any 12 month period of marketing which Edward (or any successor purchaser) might be trying to rely on as the basis for applying for planning permission for change of use.
While at this stage standing-back and supporting (hoping for!) someone else to buy the pub, we remain – as always – in place to raise funds and buy it as a community-owned pub as a long-stop to prevent any attempt to turn it into, say, housing.
Meanwhile, having not been open for new members since 2012, we are open to members again for now. Anyone interested, should email froth@charsfield.org.uk.
