Plans for closed pub to be turned into private house refused (From Watford Observer)

Plans for The Royal Oak in Bovingdon Green to be turned into new home refused

12:00pm Wednesday 2nd January 2013 in News By Rebecca Perring, Reporter

Councillors and residents have welcomed the refusal of plans to turn a Bovingdon pub into a private house.

The Royal Oak pub in Bovingdon Green closed in April last year and the owners, Mr and Mrs Power, had put in a planning application to change the use of the pub into a four or five bedroom house.

However Dacorum Borough Council has refused the application at a planning committee meeting.

Residents had previously voiced their concerns that the community would be deprived of its only rural public house and hoped the premises, located at the junction between Middle Lane, Water Lane and The Green, would one day reopen as a pub.

Councillor Gbola Adeleke spoke at the meeting in which he recommended refusal of the application.

He said: "The Royal Oak is a valuable, social and community facility in Bovingdon. It occupies a very enviable location opposite Bovingdon Green and the Cricket pitch with the added advantage of being close to the Chilterns and Hertfordshire Highways.

"This application will compromise the interests of the local community and destroy one of the few remaining buildings of interest in our borough."