Protestors at The White Lion pub, Walsall, are concerned about the pub being turned into apartments

Transcript

00:00Okay Mark, so you're the chair of the Friends of the White Lion pub here in

00:04Samwell Street in Warsaw. You've been campaigning to bring the the pub back to

00:10the community since it closed in 2019 was it? That was right, yeah.

00:15And now it's back on the market, it's going to be auctioned off on Thursday next week

00:19that's right the 13th of February. How do you feel about that? Well hopeful

00:23really, I mean we've been campaigning to look at to make sure that

00:28the heritage of the building's been honoured and it has a use which is

00:32relevant for the local community and the local neighbourhood. We'd love to see it

00:36as a pub again but we'd support anybody who buys the building who wants to do

00:40something positive for it, positive for the local community. Right, because the

00:43current owners apparently, ATA Capital Investments, they've indicated this

00:47it could be suitable for 13 apartments. How do you feel about that? Well we're horrified by

00:52that, obviously we're not against high quality accommodation for people

00:57but to fit 13 living accommodation in there is they'd have to build on the

01:01garden, they'd have to put living accommodation in the

01:04cellars, there would be no parking. The local neighbours think it would be a

01:09nightmare and we don't believe that will be an asset for the neighbourhood and

01:13we don't think it honours the heritage of the building. The parking around here

01:16actually is a problem already isn't it? It's very, very, very difficult. We'd just like

01:21something to happen with the building which brings it back into use

01:25which hopefully gives it some asset for the local community, a meeting place, if

01:29possible, a pub or part of the building as a pub. We'd be happy to talk to

01:33anyone with ideas for the building. Realistically what do you think could

01:37happen to the building? You know I mean pubs are struggling on that at the moment.

01:41Well it's difficult, I mean never say never is what we say around here.

01:46Local breweries have indicated an interest in the building but said it

01:50provides too much of a challenge. Really the building does need quite

01:54extensive refurbishment. There are people who are

01:59interested in working with us. If the pub doesn't sell at auction next week I

02:02think that might open up another raft of possibilities for us and for

02:07potential investors and maybe funding for it as a heritage

02:12asset. We've got support from the local council and the local councillor was

02:17speaking this morning about his support for it. So there's always

02:21possibilities and I think the most important thing is that we keep looking

02:23for them and we keep talking about it. Well fingers crossed and all the best.