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From the
https://www.kentonline.co.uk By John Nurden, 3 July 2020.
Final roar for Sittingbourne pub The Lion as it faces bulldozers to make way for flats.
Sittingbourne is to lose a former Victorian pub to make way for 15 flats.
Swale councillors unanimously gave permission on Thursdayfor the old
Lion Inn in Church Street, Milton Regis, to be demolished and replaced
with a five-storey block of apartments.
The former Lion Inn in Church Street, Milton Regis.
The pub can be traced back to 1897 (I've
traced it to 1881, Paul Skelton) and had been a popular watering hole
for paper mill workers and brickmakers. Boxing matches were held in its
function hall upstairs.
Its last landlord Percy Wheeler stopped selling beer in 1945. Over the
years it escaped demolition despite various attempts to turn it into a
warehouse, offices and even a lorry park.
The two-storey building, at one time owned by Whitbread Fremlins, was
eventually bought by the applicant's late father in 1979 after it had
been standing derelict for more than 20 years and converted into homes.
It is empty again after a spell being lived in by squatters.
The new plans include one and two-bedroom apartments, each with a
balcony, underneath car parking, electric vehicle charging points and
racks for 15 bicycles.
The paper mill opposite closed in 2007 and was demolished in 2011 to
make way for Mill Place, a development of 150 homes.
How the new apartments in Church Street, Milton Regis, on the site of the former Lion Inn could look.
Despite the upstairs hall retaining its wood panelling and original
fireplace the building itself was deemed to have no historical or
architectural merit.
Cllr Mike Baldock (Ind) 'called in' the application. He said: "I thought
as a pub it had some heritage value as the last element of the old mill
and felt a decision to pull it down should be taken by members rather
than officers.
"I had been hoping there could be a more sympathetic conversion without
involving demolition. But it was not to be. The heritage report turned
out to be damning and the plans were passed unanimously. It is rather
sad."
Allen Whitnell, chairman of the Sittingbourne Heritage Museum also
objected. He said: "I am concerned about the loss of our heritage." The
Sittingbourne Society asked for "careful consideration" of the
building’s merits to be taken into account.
The application for outline planning permission said the old pub was "an
island out of place" and the new building will “maintain the character
of the local area” and “not give rise to an unacceptable impact upon
residential amenities.”
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