The Campaign for the Morden Tavern
Central Road Morden [do not write to this address] 29th August 2011
The story so far…
The leasehold of the pub (MT), a profitable community pub, was placed on the market in 2009 by Enterprise Inns who have been dumping assets to cover large debts built up during the property bubble. The leasehold was acquired by a development company, Reef Estates. Reef entered into negotiations with Merton Council (MC) who own the Freehold, before acquiring the leasehold. They subsequently signed a contract with MC to buy the Freehold, subject to the grant of 'suitable' planning permission.
They made a planning application in 2010 for 49 dwellings and 3 shop units. This application received 408 objections and was 'withdrawn'. A subsequent similar application in 2011 received 800 objections and was 'deferred' at the Planning Committee on 24th July 2011 with only 14% social housing offered. The pub was forced to close in 2010 by the developer.
There is no community centre on the estate only a small church hall and sports club. The pub did have a troubled reputation in recent times due to the tied tenancy system operated by Enterprise Inns, who made no investment in the pub, but it remained an important social facility with a cherished children's garden, dog training school and 40 social functions pre-booked at the time of its closure. The campaign has established the following facts:
- Reef Estates were the only company aware that MC would be willing to sell the Freehold during the leasehold auction.
- MC turned away another developer who enquired about the Freehold at this time.
- MC has a Pub Protection Policy (L16) which states that public houses should be advertised to the pub sector for eighteen months to two years as a pub before a change of use could be applied for. The MT was advertised for six months.
- Bids from the pub trade were not successful as Reef Estates 'made the highest bid', contra to L16 policy.
- Council officers continue to state 'there was no interest' from the pub sector although Siobhan McDonagh MP has produced evidence that there was interest and bids.
- Council officers have stated – based on hearsay and not evidence - that the pub was 'not economically viable' although 40 social functions had to be cancelled when it was forced to close and serious bidders from the pub sector wanted the leasehold.
- Merton failed to follow its own 'asset disposal policy' as it 'didn't apply in this case' and have argued that L16 also 'does not apply in this case'.
- The Campaign has figures which suggest the council has undervalued the property by £1m, a breach of Section 123 of the 1972 Local Government Act.
- A Bat survey carried out for the developer 'found no evidence of Bats' although the campaign has video evidence of Bats on the site.
- Council officers kept no minutes for any meetings during negotiations with Reef Estates.
- The Local Government Ombudsman and Audit Commission have launched investigations after submissions to them by the CMT. They are now co-ordinating these investigations following information obtained so far.
- The CMT has made a request to the Secretary of State (DCLG) that the planning application be called in as it appears unlikely that MC can take a properly objective decision in the present circumstances.
The Campaign has support from individual members of all the main political parties within Merton, notably Dennis Pearce (Labour), Richard Hilton (Conservative) and Iain Dysart (Liberal), all parties within the London Assembly and Mayoral Candidates, Jenny Jones (Green) and Ken Livingston (Labour).
The CMT has spoken to over 1,000 residents. The general consensus is that there are enough new houses and flats’ being added to St Helier Estate, a new development of over 250 new homes is being built just 100m away. There is no need for more shops, especially Tesco Metro style shops. That the community would like to have a community facility like a day-care centre / youth club / crèche / nursery or OAP club at the site alongside a suitable pub restaurant with the function rooms retained as this is a publicly owned asset which should be kept for the benefit of the community and not sold for private profit.
Planning Matters
The Morden Tavern is a splendid period building, quite typical of its time, by a highly-regarded architect knighted for his services to architecture, Sir Harry Redfern FRIBA. It was 'Locally Listed' by Merton Council in December 2010 as a result of the research undertaken on behalf of the Campaign by Conservation Works, a firm of historic buildings consultants specialising in public houses and brewery buildings heritage conservation.
The planning application is for conversion of the Tavern into retail units on the ground floor, one of them possibly to be used as a small bar – although there is no guarantee that this will happen- and the upper floors to be stripped of their remaining historic finishes and converted into apartments. It also includes development of the large garden with a block of flats to the right of the Tavern on the Central Road side and a range of houses and maisonettes to the side and rear on Abbotsbury and Blanchard Road sides. This development will destroy the special interest and character of the Local List building and its setting, contrary to national and Merton Council's own planning policies on the historic environment.
This was brought to the Planning Applications Committee (PAC) at their 21st July meeting, and because of the tremendous furore created by the Campaign over the Council's handling of both the site disposal and planning processes, including the over 800 written planning objections generated by the local community, was the subject of a long and sometimes heated debate.
The conclusion of the discussion was to 'defer', that is, to put off until a later date, the decision on whether to grant consent, something which not only the Campaign had previously asked for, but several of your local councillors, from both sides of the political divide, too. The application was still incomplete in several respects, not least regarding Reef Estates' attention to historic buildings and wildlife legislation.
While it is true that planning committees must decide development applications solely on their planning merits, taking into account not only local but regional and national planning policies, a duty the Chair of the PAC reminded committee members of on the night, Merton Council cannot be regarded as making a totally independent decision on this one since they stand to make so much money simply from the grant of consent. It is for this reason that the Campaign made an application three months ago to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (the senior central Government body responsible for planning matters) that the application be 'called in', that is, removed from Merton's control and the application determined by the independent Planning Inspectorate.
Whether this happens is decided by the SoS's department after Merton have decided the application. The consent is not final until the SoS decides not to call it in, a process which can take up to six weeks after Merton have issued a decision notice.
In addition, it was made clear by members of the PAC that the scheme as it presently stands must be substantially revised and that the new scheme must be examined by Merton's Design Review Panel (DRP), a committee of professionals which includes architects. The DRP is not due to meet until we believe October, so the earliest the PAC will discuss this again will be November.
Please, do write to the Planning Officer, Tony Ryan, objecting to firstly, the loss of the pub, which should be protected by the Council's own policy L16, and to overdevelopment of the site which the scheme represents. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you need help with this.
Dale Ingram,
Director Conservation Works UK Ltd
Planning Consultant to the CMT
SW London CAMRA Pubs Preservation Officer
What Happens next?
Although the current planning application has been ‘deferred’ the future of the MT is still not secure. As well as continuing to resist any application to build homes and shops on the site, continuing to obtain political support for the Campaign and holding Merton Council to account for their failures in following due process over the MT fiasco; The CMT are now working on making an alternative proposal for the site in which a commercial enterprise such as a pub restaurant is re-established along with a commitment to some community enterprise projects.
If you have any suggestions or ideas as to how this publicly owned asset could be used for the benefit of the St Helier Community we would love to hear from you. Perhaps you are a community project looking for a suitable venue or you are a local business entrepreneur who would be willing to work with the community in a private / public project?
We already have some potential private enterprise interest and we will be inviting the current leaseholder to meet with us to see if they will be willing to work with the community.
You can contact the Campaign via email:
tavern.development@virginmedia.com
or via our Facebook Page: Campaign for Morden Tavern.
Help Required!
Until the Campaign for the Morden Tavern came about, I had never been involved in anything like this, but I knew that I had to do something to try to stop the developers destroying part of our community. I had no idea what would be involved or how long the campaign would be, but most of all I did not realise how rewarding it would be.
Because we are a relatively small group the campaign has been fairly time consuming, with a lot of time taken up just trying to keep the community informed of forthcoming events and letting people know of the progress that we have made. We have produced several leaflets and newsletters, each of which have had a print run of 3000 and we have hand delivered them all with the help of some volunteers.
We also managed to return around 800 letters of objection to the recent planning application, by knocking on doors and asking residents to back the campaign by completing the pre-printed forms. This was a very rewarding project, not only because of the large number of letters of objection we secured but because we got to meet local residents who wanted to share their memories of the Tavern or give their views on why the Tavern should be saved and what could be done with the site if the campaign was successful. By going out delivering and knocking on doors I came to realise how few people I actually knew who lived around me and how much the community needs a hub where people can come together and the Tavern could be that community centre.
The Campaign always needs people to help with a large number of jobs and we are actively recruiting volunteers. If you are interested and are prepared to give us some of your time to help with this worthy project we would love to hear from you.
You can do as little or as much as you choose, from spending a few minutes helping to fold leaflets , to becoming a committee member attending weekly meetings.
We always need people who would be prepared to help. It can be as simple as offering to deliver leaflets and newsletters once a month to your street. For those with more time it could be help with canvassing and we would really like to have volunteers with a legal background or people who have experience of running community groups. The work is totally voluntary and you set the amount of time you give, we never pressure anybody.
Nick Brickell, St Helier resident.
If you feel that you would like to help please e-mail us on
tavern.development@virginmedia.com
Watch our video of ‘Bats Morden Tavern Bats Two’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWgYKbJ9x9M
