A VACANT pub that is facing demolition is of little interest to anyone outside Whitchurch.

That is the view of a Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Cabinet member in charge of planning.

A campaigner seeking to save the Harvest Home building in Whitchurch wrote to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council Cabinet member Rob Golding and council leader Cllr Andrew Finney, saying they had overstated the risk of legal action if the council used special ‘Article 4 direction’ powers to save the former pub in Winchester Road, which is thought to have been built in the 1920s.

Andrew Reeves-Hall, of Lynch Hill Park, Whitchurch, said by contrast, they were prepared to take risks in their demolition of office buildings to redevelop Basing View.

As previously reported, the borough council refused to apply for an Article 4 direction because of the risk of the developers seeking compensation because the value of the site would be reduced.

Mr Reeves-Hall claimed the liability risk was “extremely unlikely.”

He said: “There was, and is, overwhelming support in Whitchurch for the Harvest Home, and even more so for local accountability.”

But Cllr Golding, Cabinet member for planning, transport and infrastructure, said the use of an Article 4 direction would almost certainly lead to a claim for compensation.

He said: “I remain of the view that it would not be appropriate to ask residents across the borough to meet a substantial liability in relation to a building which is of comparatively little interest outside Whitchurch.”

Pegasus Planning Group has applied to the borough council for approval of the method of demolition and restoration of the site.

Its application states: “The property is no longer habitable or viable in its current condition, and therefore the surrounding area would benefit from the redevelopment of the site.”