Plans to convert a vacant York pub into flats have been blocked almost a decade after it closed.
The application to convert The Jubilee, in Balfour Street near Leeman Road, into six apartments was refused by City of York Council’s planning committee yesterday (Thursday).
Dominic Woodward, Tri-Core Developments, told councillors he had not received any offers to buy the pub despite advertising it for sale, leaving it boarded up and a target for vandalism.
But objectors told councillors the developer had allowed the building to fall into disrepair to make it unattractive to buyers after several attempts to get the conversion approved.
The latest application came after the council’s decision to block three flats in the upper floors of the building was overturned following an appeal in 2022.

Those plans proposed keeping a pub on the ground floor and they followed an application for four apartments in the upper floors which were refused in 2018.
The building, which dates to the late 19th century, has been recognised by the council as a heritage and community asset.
Tri-Core Developments bought it after previous operators Enterprise Inns put it up for sale in 2016.
‘Run by the wrong people’
Councillors heard it currently stood empty and boarded-up and it had been subject to break ins, an arson attack and vandalism.
The dilapidated state of the pub was made known after YorkMix published a series of photographs sent to us by a concerned citizen showing that the Jubilee’s interior.
During the planning meeting, Cllr Emily Nelson quizzed Mr Woodward from the developers about those pictures and the current condition of the pub.
She said: “The reason I’m asking is I’m aware that, circulating online, there’s a recent YorkMix article with some quite shocking photographs of the interior of the building.”


She was asking because the inspector who granted Tri-Core’s previous planning appeal made it a condition that the developer “would carry out repairs and an internal fit out” to make the pub more marketable.
Cllr Nelson asked: “Just to be absolutely clear, no work has been done in terms of dealing with the pub, putting it back into a shell that could be taken on by a landlord?”
In reply, Mr Woodward said they would only need to carry repairs to the staircase to comply with that condition.
“As in the shell, it’s already in the state that it would be for anybody take it on now,” he said.
“I appreciate you’ve seen these images online. It’s photos that people have taken after breaking into the building, which is obviously unfortunate that they’ve done that and then shared them.
“So I wasn’t very happy with the YorkMix for sharing and I told them that. But people graffitiing on walls, etc, smashed glass stuff is cosmetic.”
‘Scandalous state’

Council planning officers recommended approving the latest application due to the lack of interest from potential pub operators while up for sale.
But objectors including Camra, local Holgate ward councillors and residents claimed the desire from locals to see it brought back into use showed it had the potential to be a success.
Nick Love, of York Camra, claimed the developer had attempted to wear objectors down by pricing potential buyers out and dampening interest with the building’s condition.
Mr Love said: “This beautiful building has fallen into decay and an absolutely scandalous state of disrepair, numerous people interested in the property have been put off by the state of it.
“The pub didn’t fail because it was in the wrong area, it failed because it was run by the wrong people with the wrong business model.”
Holgate ward’s Cllr Lucy Steels-Walshaw said the loss of the pub had contributed to a feeling in the community that it had been left behind.
The Labour ward councillor said: “This pub once hosted children’s parties, barbeques in the summer and a Diamond Jubilee party, it was at the heart of the community.
“The building is of considerable historic significance but it has been allowed to deteriorate into a terrible state.”
Open to buyers

Applicant Mr Woodward said he had been open to buyers including those from the community taking the pub on and had offered to help them get funding to acquire it.
The developer said: “That wasn’t taken any further and there would now need to be a significant investment into the building to bring it back into operation.
“When I bought this pub in 2016 it had been loss-making for a number of years, Enterprise Inns even offered to lease it for £1-a-week.
“The site has deteriorated, in 2016 we left it unboarded but since then it has become the target of vandalism and the windows have been smashed so we’ve had to board it up.
“The suggestion that this was a deliberate tactic to make it undesirable is an insulting accusation, we’ve suffered an ongoing financial burden because of this.”