Andrew Tarling v Somerset Council & Anor
[2024] UKFTT 442 (GRC)
Dragonfly Architectural Services Limited v Brighton & Hove City Council
6 November 2023
[2023] UKFTT 946 (GRC)
First-tier Tribunal
A pub was nominated for special protection because it's important to the community. The owner wanted to turn it into flats, but the judge said there's still a chance it could be a pub again (even if not a profitable one), so the protection stays.
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.
Similar Cases
Pavillion (Watford) Limited v Three Rivers District Council
[2024] UKFTT 443 (GRC)
Tavern Group Properties Limited v South Kesteven District Council
[2024] UKFTT 146 (GRC)
Swinton Park Golf and Country Club 2017 Limited v Salford City Council
[2023] UKFTT 514 (GRC)
Brian Newton v Derbyshire Dales District Council & Anor
[2024] UKFTT 435 (GRC)