A beloved Scunthorpe pub disused for over a year has been saved again from demolition.
The Lincoln Imp was proposed to be removed for housing last year, but a public outcry followed and North Lincolnshire Council‘s planning committee unanimously rejected it. Its closure followed within a matter of days.
The same application for 20 affordable homes in its place was resubmitted earlier this year, prompting again former pub staff and customers to share what the venue meant to them. Council officers recommended it for approval as it was no longer a used community facility.
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But councillors refused it, on the grounds the proposed homes were “rabbit hutches” and the disused pub was still a community asset. In a speech met with applause by members of the public, young musician Emma Jackson shared her story with North Lincolnshire Council’s planning committee of what the pub meant to her.
“When I first started going to the Lincoln Imp, I was 16,” she said, introduced to it by her mum through then pub landlady Lorraine Briggs.
“Throughout my life, I’ve felt an outcast,” she said, due to mental and physical health conditions. But not at the Lincoln Imp, where she soon performed as a guitarist and singer, ended up with her and her mum working at the pub, and produced artwork for it too. “It soon became my favourite ever place.”
“The thought of it being bulldozed makes me sick,” she said and on the over a year of it being closed, said: “It’s just as important as when the decision was made last time.” She criticised Admiral Taverns, the landlords, for letting it become “an eyesore”. It now had smashed front windows and a tip in what was the beer garden.
Kingsway with Lincoln Gardens Ward Cllrs Helen Rayner and Tony Gosling also pleaded for more time for the pub to be saved. “Did the brewery try to make this pub a going concern? I would suggest no,” said Cllr Gosling. He called it a “cynical move to destroy a valued community asset”.
(Image: Jennings Design Associates – North Lincolnshire Council)
“For over 18 months now, the pub has been actively marketed,” said Richard Gee, director of developers Roman Sumner Associates. For it to remain open, “it needs to be viable to do so”. He indicated it would take “in the region of about £300,000 to resurrect” the Lincoln Imp. He pointed out it was neither the landowner nor his client, Shape Land and Property, that had carried out damage to the disused site.
No bids had been forthcoming and it was felt reasonable attempts had been made to afford time for such. He also noted 44,000 pubs had closed across the UK in recent years, and the situation reflected this trend.
All 20 homes would be affordable housing. The local authority needed 156 affordable homes built in North Lincolnshire each year, he said, but only about 91 were being built. Over five years, this meant 58 per cent of required affordable housing was being met. “Behind these figures are real people who can’t afford to buy their home.”
Council leader Cllr Rob Waltham spoke against the application, as he had the first time. He argued the commercial environment was more favourable now for the pub to potentially be rescued. He felt the homes were an overdevelopment of the site and agreed with a description by Cllr Gosling of them. “These are, at best description, rabbit hutches.”
Planning committee member Cllr Carol Ross said “it’s a great loss to community support in that area” if the pub went, and praised Ms Jackson for her speech. Cllr Mick Grant agreed to oppose it, but only on the overdevelopment grounds.
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Addressing Lincoln Imp campaigners, he said: “Can we get real about this? You’ve had a year or so to see to it. You’ve got to get real. If you don’t do something about this, you will end up in the same issue.”
As for Cllr Max Bell, he felt the fate of other pubs did not mean it followed for the Lincoln Imp. “Just because 44,000 pubs have closed, that doesn’t mean there should be 44,001.”
Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe
