A former award-winning micropub in St Peter’s will be converted to offices for the adjacent Nobles Funeral Directors, which owns the site.
The Yard of Ale shut down in August 2023 after 10 years in operation when the lease was not renewed.
It had been created in a former stable block building by Shawn Galvin and Ian Noble and was a former CAMRA Kent Pub of the Year winner.
However, following the non-renewal of the lease and subsequent closure an application was made for it to revert back to use by the funeral business.
Seven objections to the plan were received by Thanet council, including representations from the Campaign for Real Ale, raising how this would mean the loss of a public house and concerns over a second application aimed at flattening the building if office use was not possible.
Communication sent by the planning agent to the council said the property would not be marketed for use as a drinking establishment: “ due to the excessive noise, drunkenness and rowdy behaviour that the use created previously, all just on the other side of the common boundary.”
Raising the concerns about the loss of a community facility, the agent said: “A Funeral Director also provides a community service, a very important one, as much if not more important than a drinking establishment.
“Firstly the “Yard of Ale” building was a micropub not a public house. The subject building a Funeral Directors office, established in 1854 by the Client’s great granddad, was converted from the funeral directors offices in 2014, at this time there were many objections, and indeed some supporters.
“It ceased trading in 2020, due to the Covid 19 epidemic, indeed it never recovered and has remained empty and deteriorating for the last four years.”
These points are disputed by CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), with Thanet branch pub preservation officer Julian Stone pointing out the Yard of Ale in fact traded until last August with the only closures being those enforced during the Covid pandemic in 2020/21.
He also highlights that local policy requires applicants to market the site for its existing use or alternative uses and questions whether any complaints were received over the last decade about “excessive noise, drunkenness and rowdy behaviour.”
He adds: “This application is not about removal of the already existing funeral directors, but about the loss of the Yard of Ale. So, to compare which is more important and thus more worthy misses the point and is not a reasonable basis for consideration.”
Mr Stone also condemned a proposal to demolish the building, saying: “This brick and flint converted former stable block is more than worthy of preservation. Threatening demolition should it “forming, as it does, a community aesthetic focal point” is quite anti-community whereas the agent’s statement about the funeral directors implies it having a pro-community stance.
“This only further demonstrates why pubs have special protections.”
The application proposes limited alterations to the building, with the insertion of 4 rooflights to the side of the building, the removal of the bar area to be replaced with a small kitchen area and the installation of a new timber staircase to make access to the upper floor of the building easier.
The council’s planning officer noted that several other pubs/micropubs traded nearby and said a second application for change of use from funeral directors office into a two bedroom flat and office does “not relate to the same application site/address.”
A decision notice approving the change to office use was published by Thanet council yesterday (August 16).
