RESIDENTS in Worcestershire being encouraged to get behind their local pub and help safeguard it for generations to come.

New laws to protect pubs as Assets of Community Value (AVC) are taking effect from April 6, which means the public can help to protect them from being sold off for development or conversion to a supermarket or other business.

The laws about AVCs are being strengthened so that once a pub is listed, the owner has to get planning permission before it can be demolished or converted to another use.

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has supported the listing of pubs as AVCs for about 18 months but says the new laws will be much more powerful.

About 600 pubs across the country are listed but there are none in Worcester and just five across the county – the Queen Elizabeth at Elmley Castle; the Dolphin Inn, at Bishampton; the Station Inn, Farfield, Kidderminster; The Manor Arms, Abberley and the Dodford Inn, Bromsgrove.

Bill Ottaway, press officer for the Worcester CAMRA branch, said he thought there were a number of pubs in Worcester which have disappeared in recent years and could have been protected with the new laws.

“There are pubs that have fallen foul of being developed. There has been a strange loophole in planning rules. The fact that a pub can be converted into a shop without planning permission makes it very difficult,” he said.

“CAMRA has never wanted to save every pub for the sake of saving it. It is about the pubs that are viable but someone wants to make money out of selling it. We want to focus on those ones that remain as a community asset.”

Mr Ottaway says Worcester lost pubs like the Salmon’s Leap in Severn Street, The Mayflower in Dines Green and the Deer’s Leap on Droitwich Road which he feels were viable.

He said one of the arguments for closing the Salmon’s Leap was because of a decline in business after Royal Worcester Porcelain closed but, if the pub had remained, it would have been surrounded by homes now and a ready-made supply of potential customers.

He explained that the Mayflower was the last pub in the Dines Green area and was demolished to make way for a new housing development. “They knocked down the church and built a new one, they knocked down shops and built new ones, they knocked down a youth centre and built a new one but they didn’t build a new pub.”

He added that CAMRA is encouraging people to take action now to help save their local pub and not wait until it comes under threat.

“If you have a thriving pub and something changes, it can be lost very quickly. We want to encourage people to make sure they get their local listed now to help save it for the future.”

Anyone can start a campaign to get their pub listed as a community asset and they need just an additional 21 signatures to support it.

For details on how to get your local listed as an ACV visit http://www.camra.org.uk/list-your-local. Alternatively go onto the local council website and look up ‘Assets of Community Value' or ‘Right to Bid'.