Much Marcle’s closed Slip Tavern pub ‘can’t be used as HMO’

The Slip Tavern around the time of its closure as a pub in 2024 (from Google Street View)
The Slip Tavern around the time of its closure as a pub in 2024 (from Google Street View)
This article is brought to you by our exclusive subscriber partnership with our sister title USA Today, and has been written by our American colleagues. It does not necessarily reflect the view of The Herald.
Close Icon

Find, save and share Public Notices that affect you in the area.

Search the Public Notice Portal What is the Public Notice Portal?

What is the Public Notice Portal?

The Public Notice Portal carries statutory public notices published in local newspapers and is the fastest and most effective way of finding out what is happening in YOUR neighbourhood.

Search the Public Notice Portal

The owner of a closed Herefordshire country pub has been told its current use as a house of multiple occupation (HMO) is not allowed.

Elliot Thomas, a local parish councillor, applied to Herefordshire Council in October 2024 for retrospective permission to change the staff and bed & breakfast accommodation at The Slip Tavern, Much Marcle to HMO use.

His application said the change, with minimal alterations to the building, had already been carried out by June 2024, shortly after the pub closed to customers.

RELATED NEWS :

Accompanying plans showed five bedrooms plus a kitchen and living room on the first floor, and a further bedroom to the rear of the ground floor, with the bar area left intact.

The council only validated the application this January, 15 months after its submission.


Stay updated with all the latest Herefordshire news that matters to you!

 Read the local news and stay informed with our advert-free app, read the paper before anyone else via: The Digital Edition, gain unlimited access to Hereford Times website, and much more.


Planning officer Josh Bailey noted that, with its facilities still in place, “it could be regarded that the Slip Tavern could still partly be used as a public house rather than the premises changing to a house of multiple occupation altogether”.

But he added that “careful thought needs to be given as to the impact [of the HMO use] on the pub’s long term viability, namely its attractiveness to future owners, when the day may well come to sell the pub as a business”.

OTHER NEWS :

The “modest benefits” of additional local accommodation had to be set against the “unsustainable” location outside the village, while the proposal was “further undermined by (its) retrospective nature” and the lack of pre-application discussion with the council, he concluded.

Planning permission for the change of use was refused.

Attempts were made to contact Mr Thomas.

Get involved
with the news

Send your news & photos