A VILLAGE looks set to get its pub back 12 years on after controversial housing plans were given the green light.

The former Pheasant Inn in Welland near Malvern, which has been empty since 2010, will be converted into flats alongside a new extension housing a restaurant and café, bar and function room.

Despite some concerns about the design of the building and the lack of parking, the application was approved by Malvern Hills District Council’s planning committee on Wednesday (November 16).

The application, which was put forward more than a year ago, will see an existing extension demolished to make way for the new function room with the former pub converted into three two-bed flats alongside another new extension containing two two-bed flats.

Cllr Viv Nelson, chair of Little Malvern and Welland Parish Council, said she was “delighted” by the plan but had some reservations.

“Twelve years is a long time,” she said at the meeting in Malvern on Tuesday. “The village not only wants a pub but needs a pub.”

Cllr Nelson said more car parking spaces would be needed and was also not thrilled by the design of the pub, saying that she hoped the white building would be returned to its former glory.   

Cllr Mick Davies, who represents Welland on MHDC, said the plan was “different” from what was rejected almost three years ago and despite being sceptical of developers building next to pubs, he was confident that the work would “create an asset of real community value” and bring “much-needed” homes.

Concerns had been raised, by both villagers in Welland and representatives from the Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), that the plan was focusing on building houses rather than re-opening a long-lost village pub.

A total of 25 objections were made against the plan during consultation with many residents saying the village needed a “smart and well-cared-for” pub rather than what had been proposed.

A plan to convert the vacant building into homes and reopen the pub inside a new extension was controversially rejected by Malvern councillors in 2019.

Councillors approved plans to build 14 homes on some of the land off the village’s Drake Street in 2017 – proposals that included the retention of the pub – which have now been built.

Villagers also looked at buying the pub in 2017.