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Wroxton’s North Arms will not reopen
15/07/2022
Permission has been given for the former public house to be converted to a residential dwelling
Time has been called on any hopes of The North Arms at Wroxton reopening. Cherwell District Council’s Planning Committee has agreed to a change of use application which will enable the property’s owner to convert it to a residential dwelling.
Villagers have campaigned for the North Arms to reopen since it last welcomed customers in 2013.
The change of use application was made by Twickenham based Tolbea Associates. They said the lack of interest in operating the property as a pub has been demonstrated by placing it on the market with national pub agents, with no potential buyers coming forward.
Plans demonstrate how the building could be converted into a four-bedroom house with a first-floor study and ground floor kitchen, dining, utility and living room areas.
The Committee Chairman Councillor George Reynolds, who is a district Councillor for Wroxton, expressed his sadness at the decision the committee had to take, but accepted the inevitability of it. He said: “I shall not be voting for closing the local pub, but I can see the work that has gone in by the applicant and our officers who put forward the reasons for the application being for approval.”
Councillor Colin Clarke, who had been a member of a darts team that used to frequent the North Arms, felt that regrettably the Planning Committee had little choice but to approve the application.
He said: “It is very sad to see pubs closing … they are closing at an alarming rate across the whole of the country.
“Its just a fact of life unfortunately – we don’t socialise and we don’t go out drinking like we used to.
“I don’t think we’ve got any choice. We look at the figures and its £150,000 just to bring it up to scratch. It just is not viable. I hate to see it go, but I don’t think we’ve got any choice.”
After the North Arms closed nine years ago a campaign to save the pub began, with local people trying to raise the funds to buy it.
In 2016 Wroxton College (Fairleigh Dickinson University) announced it had bought the pub and began work liaising with district council planning officers to get permission for the changes they wished to make to the building. In February 2021 the college decided to pull out of the project, blaming mounting costs and the business situation due to the pandemic.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam