Heritage hopes after pub decision disappointment

A group that had wanted to save Preston’s historic Tithebarn pub and turn it into a centre telling the story of the city’s past says it was never given a proper chance to make its vision a reality.

Preserving Preston’s Heritage (PPH) was reacting to the final decision taken by Preston City Council this week to demolish the former hostelry – which dates back to 1793 – after the authority concluded that it would be too costly to try to keep it upright.

As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed on Wednesday, the estimated bill for shoring up the one potentially salvageable part of the structure – opposite the bus station – was calculated to be £150k.

That figure was solely to save the ground floor-level facade of the building facing Lord Street – with the Tithebarn Street section still having to be pulled down in its entirety.   Neither did the tally include the up to £350k cost of constructing a new building on the site.

The move to flatten the once popular pub – where the last pints were pulled exactly 10 years ago this month – marked the end of a seven-month wrangle about whether it was possible for any part of the venue to remain standing.

After the city authority announced demolition plans in May, PPH brought forward a blueprint to create a heritage centre on the plot, which centred around their contention – based on an assessment they ordered – that the Lord Street element of the building could be saved.

The council agreed to investigate the possibility of retaining that section of the structure, but a full structural survey commissioned by the council later found it was “unstable and unsafe” – and should be brought down completely.   Planning permission was granted to that effect in November, but it was only this week that deputy city council leader Martyn Rawlinson signed off on full demolition of the building.

He said he could not “justify” the cost of propping up the former pub, nor the risk of “handing it over to a relatively new group who do not have a penny to invest in it” – namely PPH.

Glenn Cookson, one of the directors of PPH, says he believes that was an unfair characterisation of the capacity the community interest company had to realise its ambition for the site.

“We put together a proposal for us to take ownership of that building last year.  Rather than give us a grace period to go away and secure funding, [the council] instead…said that they were going to look for an alternative future for [it] – and then their alternative future was that it was still going to be demolished anyway.

“Of course, we couldn’t secure funding without the council giving us permission and contracts [being] signed to say that we [had] rights to apply for funding on behalf of that building,” Glenn explained to the LDRS.

While the disappointment of losing The Tithebarn still evidently stings, Glenn says the group he helped establish to preserve Preston’s past was now looking to a more positive future of working in co-operation with the city council to achieve their mutual aims.

At a pre-planned meeting between PPH and the local authority 24 hours after the Tithebarn demolition decision was confirmed, Glenn said the group had secured some follow-up discussions to “talk about small, quick-win projects”.

“[There have been] lots of positives in the last 12 months – they’ve recruited more planning enforcement officers [and] more progress has happened with [these] buildings,” explained Glenn, who said he was assured that pressure from PPH had played its part in that shift.

It is just over 12 months since the city council established a task force focused on Preston’s empty, often historically significant, buildings – encouraging and, where necessary, ordering their owners to keep the properties secure and safe, amid a spate of arson attacks at derelict sites.

A spokesperson for Preston City Council told the LDRS that the authority and PPH had agreed to “work more closely in the future on any shared interests and properties that are in need of attention”.