Bid to change the Noel Arms in Langham into housing submitted to Rutland County Council by Gold Leaf Property Investments

Plans have been drawn up to turn a pub into housing.

Gold Leaf Property Investments has applied to Rutland County Council for change of use to convert the Noel Arms, in Langham, into six apartments.

The Bridge Street pub, which closed in the spring and has been empty since May, is part of the Rugby-based firm’s property portfolio, listed under Rugby Property Assets.

They propose three two-bedroom and three one-bedroom apartments with parking and ‘amenity space’.

The Noel was once the brewery tap for the now-defunct Ruddles Brewery, but the applicants say the proximity of competitors, particularly the nearby Wheatsheaf and Oakham town bars, made it ‘unviable’ as a business.

The pub was sold in October 2019, and the landlord left the following year but reopened once again in July 2020 with a new landlady who ran it until its latest closure

“All reasonable efforts have been made to preserve the facility or service, but the service is no longer considered viable,” says the planning statement.

The applicants say the 19th-century building, which is not listed but falls in the village’s conservation area, has been left in a ‘poor state of repair’ and makes a ‘negative contribution’ to the village.

They say their plans would give it ‘a much-needed new lease of life’ and would meet meet the criteria for ‘affordable housing’, while helping the area meet its housing targets set for 2011 to 2026.

They can be seen in full here.

They propose a mews-type development with ‘minimal alterations’ to the existing buildings, but with the demolition of a modern former extension, a timber structure at the entrance and a prefabricated concrete store building.