Victory for Chesham Arms campaigners as developer’s appeal quashed

Cheers: Chesham Arms campaigners outside the pub on Metahebal Road

Campaign group Save the Chesham Arms have secured a huge victory after the Planning Inspector refused to allow the 150 year-old pub building to be split up permanently into flats.

Hackney Council served a planning enforcement notice against owner Mukund Patel, after he ignored warnings and rented the upstairs of the pub on Metahebal Road as a flat without planning permission.

Mr Patel appealed the decision, arguing that converting the pub was allowed under permitted development rights – a national grant of planning permission, which allow some changes of a building’s use to be carried out without Council approval.

However, following a two day public inquiry, the Planning Inspector quashed Mr Patel’s appeal and upheld the Town Hall’s enforcement notice.

The Planning Inspector amended the notice, meaning Mr Patel now has until March 2016 to comply with its terms and cease using the upper floors as a residential flat.

The Planning Inspector ruled that dividing the building up would signal the end for the Chesham Arms. He said that not only would the Clapton Square Conservation Area suffer without the pub but that its change of use would be in breach of planning policies.

Chesham Arms campaigners protest outside Town Hall. Photograph: Josh Loeb

Protected

The planning inspector also mentioned that the Chesham Arms’ status as a registered Asset of Community Value (ACV) was a factor in his decision to uphold the notice.

The Chesham Arms pub, on Metahebal Road, became Hackney’s first ACV in March 2013 – a move that recognized the importance of the pub as a social space vital for the community and which offered the pub limited legal protection.

Chairman of the Save the Chesham Campaign, Jonathan Sockett, expressed his joy and said he looked forward to the developer abandoning his “unrealistic plans”. He said: “We always knew it was wrong for the landlord’s flat to be self-contained without permission and we are delighted that the inspector has dismissed the appeal.”

James Watson, a pub campaigner for the Campaign for Real Ale and local resident said the Chesham Arms case demonstrates the “disconnect” between planning and localism.

“Although this pub is an Asset of Community Value and the Community and Council have clearly tried to save it, nationally-set permitted development rights have allowed this developer to ride roughshod over the wishes of the community”, he said.

Cllr Guy Nicholson, Cabinet Member for Regeneration said: “The decision by the Planning Inspectorate will add an extra safety-net against the illegal development of this 150-year-old historic building, a success not just for the Council but for the whole community.”

A spokesperson for Mukund Patel said: “The upper floor flat will be rented out on the open market until the new compliance date of the March 23 2016 and a similar situation will occur with the ground floor offices to the same date.

“It is likely that in early 2016 we will review the position in light of national and local planning policy and permitted development prevalent at that time.”