Baxenden pub to shop conversion 'will be asset to village'

Baxenden's Cllr Terry Hurn welcomed the the transformation of the boarded-up 200-year-old Bay Horse in Manchester Road.

He was pleased when James Berggrem of Thistlewood Properties Ltd said it would be similar to the successful conversion of the Bull's Head in Wilpshire.

Cllr Hurn said: "This is going to be an asset to the village.

"I am pleased we are going to get this building back into use like with the Bull's Head in Wilpshire.

"A new shop is needed."

He spoke as Hyndburn Council planning committee unanimously approved the scheme which would retain and refurbish the fabric of the pub,add an extension and employ 15 staff.

A previous bid to demolish the building and build a Co-op shop was rejected by Hyndburn planners in October 2021.

Rishton Labour councillor Bernard Dawson told the meeting on Tuesday: "This is a way to keep the building.

"It is going to create jobs. That will be welcome."

The 200-year-old Bay Horse, immediately opposite the Grade II listed Church of St. John the Baptist and Baxenden War Memorial, ceased trading in July 2020.

Chief planning office Simon Prideaux said there was little prospect of it reopening as a pub.

He added that Lancashire County Council is constructing a new toucan signal-controlled crossing on Manchester Road along the frontage of the development site when Barnfield ward's June Harrison expressed concern about speeding vehicles along the highway.

Mr Berggrem told the meeting: "Baxenden village has a requirement for local top up shopping.

"It will act as a local centre for the village."

He said no operator had yet been chosen for the new convenience store.

The Bay Horse is a late eighteenth or early nineteenth-century coaching inn, with stables and coach house building and one of the oldest buildings in Baxenden village.

The committee agreed to raise its concerns about speeding on Manchester Road with Lancashire County Council and the police.