Plans submitted to rebuild Punch Bowl Inn as holiday lets

Donelan Trading Ltd has submitted a planning application for six apartments and managers' accommodation on the site of the former Grade-II listed pub in Longridge Road, Hurst Green, which was razed to the ground unlawfully on June 15, 2021.

The company, along with owner Andrew Donelan, 61, his wife Nicola Donelan, 59, and daughter Rebecca Donelan, 29, all of Carr Hall, Whalley New Road, Wilpshire, were all found guilty of illegally demolishing the pub nearly two years ago.

As well as the Donelan’s, the court also found David Cotterell, 58, of Percliff Way, Philips Road, Blackburn; and Brian Ingleby, 70, Hollowhead Avenue, Wilpshire, guilty of illegally demolishing the pub.

District Judge Alex Boyd handed the group, and the two associated businesses, a total fine of £22,250, prosecution costs of £44,650 and a £2,225 surcharge - a total payment owed of £69,125.

Alongside the court case, Donelan Trading Ltd. Was sent a notification order by the planning inspectorate to rebuild the pub.

The Punch Bowl Inn in 2014 (Image: geograph.org.uk / Rude Health)

The company tried to appeal the civil order, but the appeal was rejected, and was given 12 months to rebuild the site.

In court, Donelan Trading Limited estimated a cost of £1.5 million to rebuild the site to its original specifications.

In the planning application submitted to Ribble Valley Borough Council, the owners state they are ‘happy to rebuild’ but that the building is ‘not economically viable’ to function as a pub.

Instead, they intend to use the site for six holiday lets which they say will be in the ‘precise form and appearance of the previous buildings’.

A statement from the planning application reads: “This site has a long history of different applications and the buildings have lately been illegally demolished as they were Grade II listed for their architectural and historic significance.

“The Ribble Valley Borough Council has issued an enforcement notice on the owners of the site for the rebuilding of the buildings in exactly their previous form.

“The owners are happy to re-build the former building however they are concerned that to re-build the buildings in their exact previous form would prove unacceptable as it would continue various aspects of the previous buildings which have proved unsatisfactory in its previous incarnations.

The demolished Punch Bowl Inn site (Image: SWNS)

“This building was not built as an Historic Highway Inn but as a row of cottages and a barn with a later addition of a separate dwelling on the east end.

“Subsequently numerous modern additions were built to the rear including commercial kitchens, pub toilets, stores and the like.

“There appears to be no future economically for the use of this building as a public house as it has been closed since 2012 prior to which it operated as a public house and later as a restaurant but did not prove economically viable.”

The plans for the building are the same shape and size of the former pub but rotated by 11 degrees, taking the building further away from Longridge Road.