Key Facts
- •The Montreal Arms pub in Brighton closed in early 2020.
- •Dragonfly Architectural Services Ltd. (Dragonfly) owns the pub and wants to convert it to residential accommodation.
- •The Friends of the Montreal Arms (FMA) nominated the pub as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) under the Localism Act 2011.
- •Brighton & Hove City Council listed the pub as an ACV.
- •Dragonfly appealed the Council's decision.
- •The pub had been a community gathering place for many years but had struggled financially before its closure.
- •Expert evidence was presented regarding the pub's financial viability and structural condition.
Legal Principles
A building is land of community value if its current or recent past use furthered social wellbeing or interests, and it's realistic a non-ancillary use could do so in the next five years.
Localism Act 2011, Section 88
A community nomination must include the nominator's reasons for believing the land is of community value, but these reasons do not need to accord with the statutory test.
Assets of Community Value (England) Regulations 2012, Regulation 6
Commercial viability is not the sole test for determining community value; community use need not be profitable.
R. (TV Harrison CIC) v Leeds School Sports Association [2022] EWHC 130 (Admin) and other cases cited.
Outcomes
The appeal is dismissed.
The Tribunal found that FMA's nomination was valid, the pub had provided community value in the recent past (albeit differently than described by FMA), and it was realistic that it could provide community value in the next five years, even if not as a profitable pub.