Last chance for York pub: Government inspector to decide if it can be demolished

A government inspector is to decide whether a 1930s York pub should be demolished to make way for houses.

An appeal has been lodged after a planning committee refused to give permission to Moorside Developments to flatten The Magnet in Osbaldwick Lane and build eight terraced homes.

Debate about The Magnet’s future centres around two key issues – whether it is still viable as a pub and its heritage value.

It is one of the generation of ‘improved’ public houses designed for the spreading suburbs and housing estates of 1930s England, and is the “the best survivor of its type in York”, according to CAMRA.

But it has been empty since 2018 after it was sold by Enterprise Inns and it does not have a “credible or economically sustainable future trading as a public house”, according to a report by property specialist commissioned by the developer.

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The council has said proper efforts have been made to market the building as a pub for a new owner, though councillors last year dismissed the various assessments as “cynical” and “box-ticking” and said more effort should have been made to keep it as a place for the community.

Osbaldwick Parish Council, independent councillor Mark Warters and York Civic Trust have all opposed plans to demolish The Magnet.

Interest in the pub

There has been interest in keeping the pub while also building homes in the car park, according to Cllr Warters.

He cited the example of The Jubilee pub in Balfour Street, an empty building that developers wanted to turn into flats. In the end, a part-pub, part flats plan was agreed after several planning applications and subsequent appeals.

Cllr Warters added: “It is important to reiterate that another developer thought it perfectly viable to retain The Magnet as a functioning public house with a discrete, starter home development on the large rear car park.

“There is no reason at all to justify the demolition of The Magnet pub.”

The condition of the pub is also an issue. According to Moorside’s appeal documents, the building is “boarded up and in poor condition, with evidence of disrepair throughout”.

But during March 2022’s planning hearing, Cllr Warters said there had been a “quite deliberate and cynical attempt to run down a perfectly good building in furtherance of demolition.”

A date for the appealing hearing has not yet been set.