'Not viable': Walton Arms pub in Bamber Bridge could be bulldozed after losing out in crowded market
Time could soon be called on the venue as losses stack up.
A loss-making Bamber Bridge pub could be demolished to make way for bungalows - if business does not pick up within six months.
Plans have been submitted to redevelop the site of the Walton Arms on St Aidan's Road.
An application lodged with South Ribble Borough Council states that there are at least 18 competing pubs in and around the town in what is described as a “heavily contested” market.
It adds that the Walton Arms has become “increasingly unviable from a trading perspective”, with losses rising from almost 10 per cent of gross turnover in 2023 to 33 per cent by 2025. Heat, light and power costs have almost trebled over the same period, it is claimed.
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Making the case to flatten the pub and replace it with a trio of detached bungalows, a planning statement says: “Taken together, the trading evidence, rising operational costs, local market saturation and risk of vacancy provide a clear planning justification for allowing the site to change to a beneficial residential use rather than allowing the premises to decline and become boarded up.”
That outcome will arrive in “approximately six months” if trading at the hostelry - which was formerly School Lane Club - “does not improve materially,” the documentation explains.
WA Pubs, which operates the Walton Arms, also runs two others in Bamber Bridge - the Withy Arms and the Weavers Arms - together with The Stag in Leyland. It says the two staff affected if the Walton Arms closes will be redeployed.
The proposed replacement bungalows will have gardens, car parking space and an electric vehicle charging point.
The planning application states that they would “improve the visual approach into the St Aidan Park estate and improve the amenity of nearby terraced houses through a more open, residential form of development”, while “reducing the risk of noise and disturbance associated with a licensed premises”.
The Lancashire Post approached The Walton Arms for comment, but had not received a promised statement by the time of publication.