EFFORTS to reopen a Herefordshire village pub as a community pub have been shelved after the property went under offer.

The Old Boot in Wellington was put on the market with agents Sidney Phillips for an asking price of £295,000 (freehold) earlier this year.

The pub has been closed for almost four years, despite community efforts to purchase it when it was last put on the market.

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Villagers set up the Community Benefit Society to purchase the Old Boot, raising hundreds of thousands to buy the pub, but they were outbid, with the pub selling for £283,000 to another buyer in March 2022.

New owners Choice Circle Ltd submitted a planning application to Herefordshire Council in August that year seeking permission to build a new three-bed home and for a partial change of use of the pub garden to residential, which attracted a large number of objections and was refused by planners in November 2023.

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The pub's reappearance on the market after the failed planning bid saw Wellington locals swing back into action, with the Wellington Community Pub group exploring avenues to take the pub on themselves.

Their plans included collaborating with Rule of Tum, which is behind the Burger Shop, Bookshop, and Leaven Pizza in Hereford, with a public meeting planned.

But now the plans have been shelved, with the group confirming that agents Sidney Phillips have informed them that the current owners have agreed the sale of the pub to a local who is interested in reopening it as a pub.

The pub is listed as being under offer on the agents' website. 

"The committee has made every effort to bring about the outcome we all wanted through community ownership (including a possible partnership with the Rule of Tum which we know stirred a lot of interest)", a spokesperson for the group said.

"Instead, the owners have decided to accept another offer and, assuming the sale proceeds as planned, we hope that you will all support the chosen buyer’s endeavours."