A VILLAGE’S only pub, which was at the centre of a failed bid to open a Co-op store, has been declared a community asset.

The new ruling means that should the owners of the Rising Sun in Bream decide to sell, the community will have six months to find the money to purchase it before it goes on the open market.

The Forest of Dean Council approved West Dean Parish Council’s bid, despite the pub’s owners opposing the move.

Landlady Jan Coates claimed in a letter to planners that the Asset

of Community Value (ACV) application was “at best misguided (not to mention short-sighted), and at worst downright malicious and completely thoughtless.”

But West Dean council clerk Dave Kent told them: “The Rising Sun is now the only pub in the village of Bream, following the closure of the Keys and the Winding Wheel. The loss of this amenity would be a great blow to the village character.”

He added: “West Dean Parish Council strongly believes that this iconic village amenity should be protected for the future benefit of residents and visitors.”

Jan and Peter Coates and developers Medinbrand Ltd wanted to convert and extend the pub’s former B&B rooms to lease a 185sq m retail space to the Co-op.

But the Forest council rejected the scheme last November after retailers in the 3,800-strong village organised petitions opposing the plan, amassing more than 1,500 names.

Planners also ruled that the single storey flat-roofed extension had “no regard to the scale and character of the original building and represents an incongruous and obtrusive extension.”

Opposing the community asset bid, Mrs Coates said: “As a matter of principle, I feel most strongly against the application to have the Rising Sun Bream listed as an ACV.”

She added that the store plan involved part of the pub building which played no part in the business and was costing them “a significant amount of money in terms of mortgage and council tax.”

The plan would have safeguarded the longer-term future of the pub, and the ACV’s backers could ultimately bring about the closure of the business through making it unviable to run, she claimed.

She said the applicants were not pub regulars, and questioned “the validity of their opinions on the value of the pub within the local community, as well as their true motivation in seeking to ‘protect’ an asset that none of them ever use.”

As three of the Forest Council’s Cabinet are members of West Dean?Parish Council, the matter was delegated to council officers, who determined that the Rising Sun should be added to the ACV register.

The Forest council also allowed the Globe pub in Berry Hill to be declared an ACV last April.