Frustrated community leaders are piling on pressure for the long-awaited demolition of an eyesore Ellesmere Port pub to go ahead.
The former Sutton pub, also once called The Marquis, on Gleneagles Road, Great Sutton, was once a popular meeting place for locals but it been empty for years now.
Repeated promises that the pub will be knocked down have been made to Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Justin Madders and ward councillors Christine Warner and Peter Wheeler by would-be developers but still no action has been taken.
Planning permission for housing on the site has been granted by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) but it is unlikely that, for local authority funding reasons, the existing supported living proposal for five one-bed bungalows and a dozen one-bed apartments within a two-storey building will go ahead.
Planning officers have told the Ledsham and Manor ward councillors that a fresh application for the site will be required and that a Section 106 agreement to fund local amenities may well be a condition of any permission for the site being granted.
Meanwhile, Mr Madders and councillors have been told that workers from Advent Construction, based in Speke, Merseyside, have been instructed to start knocking down the pub.
Such an assurance was given last November by Dan Alders, chief executive of Liverpool-based Social Value Housing (SVH) Limited, who, alongside fellow director Steve Sargent, has long been connected to the Gleneagles Road housing proposal. The SVH company mission statement is to ‘provide quality, affordable homes to those who need them most’.
Mr Madders says there have been too many false assurances about when work will begin to demolish the pub and tidy what has become a ‘deplorable’ site. He says the developer has a legal duty of care to the public to make the site secure and safe, “The appearance is disgusting. It really drags the area down,” he said.
In an email to Mr Alders and Mr Sargent, Cllr Warner, who also chairs the CWaC planning committee, said: “I was very disappointed when I drove past the old Sutton pub to see that, despite many promises over a long period of time, the pub is still standing and is in a deteriorating condition.
“It is an eyesore for the local residents who have shown remarkable patience. It is also a risk to the community as it could become a target for vandals etc.
“Empty promises are not delivering for the old pub or the community. The co-operation of the local community is something which you could be courting as you move forward with your plans, whatever they are.
“As it stands there is no confidence in what you have told us so far.”
Pictured - Justin Madders MP with Councillors Christine Warner and Peter Wheeler outside the eyesore pub site in Great Sutton.
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