Plans submitted to demolish once popular village pub-restaurant and build homes

The once popular Corner House at Wrightington closed its doors for the last time in August 2022 after experiencing a fall-off in trade.

Owner David Lawson had earlier submitted a planning application to knock it down and construct nine homes in its place.

Local residents opposed the scheme and successfully campaigned for the 150-year-old establishment to become listed by West Lancs Council as a community asset, meaning they had a six-month period where they had first refusal to buy the property in the hope of finding a new use for it.

However, Mr Lawson successfully challenged the building’s status because it had residential use upstairs and so it was re-listed as a partial asset and the community moratorium fell.

In the meanwhile the original blueprint was withdrawn and two new, speculative applications in principle have been submitted to the authority by Mr Lawson to raze the hostelry, which in previous incarnations was also called the Scarisbrick Arms and The Mulberry Tree, and this time build eight homes on the site: four on the footprint of the pub and another four, affordable properties on the car park.

Dan Hughes from agent PWA Planning said: “The community asset issue was a bit of a red herring because the pub has been on the market for five years and the local community had had every opportunity to buy it then as they do now, but so far no-one has come forward.”

The Corner House at Wrightington Bar, had been owned by the Lawson family for 20 years when it closed, and they cited a decline in trade plus the impact of both the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

A post by the family on the Corner House’s Facebook page last August said: "The hospitality sector is under increasing financial pressures post-Covid and with the cost of living crisis we cannot continue to run at a loss for any longer.

“The decision to close was compounded by key members of staff wishing to leave."

The chance to apply for community asset status was brought in by the government in the hope thet some communities would be able to rescue failing pubs and put them to community use.