Some of the Tweets around the campaign for Brent to have a Pub Protection policy in its planning rules say that some councillors promised this to The Queensbury campaigners some time ago. If so, I think the campaigners should ask those councillors why they didn't follow up. The matter was discussed by the Planning Committee back in February, and I have been talking to officers about different aspects of Planning policies for some time before that. I don't have strong feelings on the Pub issue, preferring to concentrate my attention on betting shops, payday loans, shisha bars and takeaways. These were reflected by officers in the documents now drafted for consultation. I am sure that had the councillors The Queensbury campaigners spoke to made similar representations, there would have been more detail on the possibilitities of a pub protection policy. I can find no evidence that any councillors raised this.
I would add a caveat, however. I don't think it would have affected The Queensbury decision. I think people ought also be realistic about how far planning can prevent pub closures. Pubs are independent businesses and a lot of what determines their success or failure is to do with their own decisions or those of their customers.
UPDATE
Thank you to The Queensbury campaign for their comment on a pub protection policy. The relevant planning policies were discussed by the Executive in March. The minutes show no mention of a pub protection policy. They do confirm that Cllr Butt was present, but evidently he chose not to raise the issue.
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Queensbury campaigners met with the following councillors: Muhammed Butt, Michael Pavey, James Denselow, Krupesh Hirani, Lesley Jones and a good many more were lobbied and written to by residents. When we formally met Muhammed Butt in April 2013 we presented him with samples of pub protection policies from numerous other boroughs and took with us one of the country's leading experts on pubs and planning policy, That person offered to help draft a pub protection policy for Brent and Cllr Butt indicated he would be supportive of one. She's still waiting for a call.
We have indeed questioned councillors about why there was nothing about pub protection in the draft development plan and received no satisfactory answer. We know that many residents are angry at the omission and have responded to the consultation, as have some of the newer councillors. We await to see if this consultation will follow the pattern of previous Brent consultations - we do hope it won't.
Regarding your caveat. The purpose of a pub protection policy is not to protect every pub, clearly there are some that are not worth saving. However, like The Queensbury, many popular pubs have had their existence threatened for no other reason than the existence of rapacious property developers and a glance at the Planning Inspectorate website will throw up cases of thriving pubs which have been saved on the basis of of a local authority pub protection policy. The Phene Arms in Kensington & Chelsea is one such example you might want to take a look at.
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