Thousands sign petition to avert Coachmakers pub demolition (VIDEO)
More than 7,500 supporters of Hanley’s Coachmakers Arms have backed the fight to save the Victorian pub, which faces demolition to make way for a £256 million shopping centre.
A period of public consultation on the proposed East West Centre is drawing to a close.
And yesterday, Coachmakers licensees Jason Barlow and Sue Grocott handed over the petition, 114 individual letters of support and details of their own consultation event to Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Jason said: “I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us and I hope that the council will take into account the views of a very large community when considering the application.”
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Since it first emerged in March that the Coachmakers was under threat back in March, the pub has won the backing of the Victorian Society, Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz and football legend Gordon Banks.
The World Cup winner has even said that saving the pub would be equal to his legendary save from Pele in the 1970 competition.
Local interest from drinkers as well as the Potteries Pub Preservation Group (PPPG) and the Potteries branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) led to a committee being formed to mastermind the fight to save the award-winning pub.
But a bid to obtain listed building status was unsuccessful. And an alternative consultation event failed to have the building incorporated into plans for the regeneration of the area.
Developer Realis Estates last month submitted an outline planning application to redevelop around Hanley bus station, a scheme which would swallow up the Coachmakers and other businesses in the row at the top of Lichfield Street.
One of those backing the pub’s campaign is Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Mark Fisher, who has lodged a formal objection to the demolition and urged the city council to help preserve the historic pub.
He said: “The Coachmakers is an important part of our heritage which ought to be included in the development of this site.
“We have not got many pubs like this left, it is popular and is an important part of the city’s history.”
It is believed the building was built in the early 19th century and was originally two dwellings.
After becoming a beer house between 1860 and 1870, it acquired a licence to sell spirits around 1910.
Jason and Sue hope their supporters will influence the planners and now hope that the thousands of supporters will influence planners, but believe that the campaign is not over yet.
Sue said: “A lot of people have assumed that because the initial planning application has gone in it is all over and done with.
“But nothing is set in stone and all it means is that there is an area where the developer wants to do certain things.
“The campaign is still there to win.”
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is still accepting representations relating to the development but interested parties will need to submit their views as soon as possible.
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