THE village of Bentworth is up in arms over a planning proposal that would see its ‘local’ pub turned into housing.

The Star Inn acted as a beacon on Saturday morning as folk were drawn to its familiar forecourt to support the ‘Save Our Star’ campaign.

They are angry over what they perceive as a decision by the owner to run down the pub and, having chosen to close it in 2015, attempting to sell it as a going concern, but with no reflection in the price, they claim, for repair work - effectively knocking out an attempt by the parish council to secure it as a community asset.

While the closure came just a year after The Star was named ‘Pub as Village Hub’ alongside its sister pub, The Sun, in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Village of the Year competition, the community is criticising a lack of investment in what had for many years been the village ‘local’.

When it was put on the market in 2015, the claim is that it was overpriced, considering its state of disrepair, leading to a RICS-registered chartered surveyor to conclude last November that it was a building of “little value” and that, since the village is already served by a period public house - The Sun – there was little prospect of The Star proving viable for commercial use.

As a result an application has been submitted, under the name of Waller Energy Ltd of Wandsworth, for the building of two-storey side and rear extensions, provision of a basement and conversion of the extended building to provide four two-bed houses and a one-bed flat over a village shop (with post office counter) following demolition of an existing front/side lean-to and single-storey elements.

Parish council chairman David Hawes said of the pub which is located in the heart of the village: “For over a century The Star has been at the physical and social heart of Bentworth.”

He is supporting the local campaign to strongly object to the proposed change of use and fails to understand how “a thriving and successful pub under its long-term tenants” could have deteriorated to the extent that it was “voluntarily closed by the owner”.

It is, he believes, “one of the best-located pubs in North East Hampshire” and one which “could be a successful business serving the community”.

With more than 420 signatures on an online petition to Save our Star and 88 public comments on East Hampshire District Council’s planning portal, 86 of them objecting to the application, planners can be left in no doubt that feeling is running high.

Now, with support from neighbouring communities, Bentworth is fighting for The Star to be retained as a pub.

According to Mr Hawes, in March 2015, Bentworth Parish Council registered The Star Inn as an asset of community value - a move supported by the draft neighbourhood plan, backed by 58 per cent of the parish.

However, considering the “lack of maintenance over many years” the building was “not offered at a fair price” and the community was unable to buy the property.

Documentation in the public domain shows that there was a considerable amount of initial interest in The Star and, while most, it seems, have been put off by the price (reduced by Christies to £455,000 last October) and the estimated £200,000 that would be needed to carry out basic repairs, there are still those who would buy if the price was right.

Backing the campaign, district councillor Tony Costigan confirms there is a syndicate of businessmen and women in the village who have had the pub valued and put in a fair offer to run The Star as a community pub - and that offer still stands.

Campaigner Steve Woods has distributed 150 leaflets to every property in the village, urging support for Save our Star and the community has rallied, with objectors joining Bentworth Parish Council in flagging up inappropriate density of development, no low-cost element, doubt over demand for a shop based on recent failures and a Post Office counter service nearby, but also flagging up The Star as a valued community asset and that credible offers have been made to run it as a pub. He added that to agree the demise of yet another pub would set a dangerous precedent. One resident said: “Nearly all pubs in villages where houses have such high value will be at risk if EHDC agrees this application.”