Owners no longer have to turn house back into pub

The owners of a former village pub have overturned a ruling requiring them to restore the building back to its original use after they converted it into a house.

HM Planning Inspectorate upheld an appeal brought by Mark and Benjamin Fitton, from the Half Moon Inn, in Sharow, near Ripon, and quashed the notice served by North Yorkshire Council.

The council had issued the enforcement notice in 2024, alleging an unauthorised change of use from a public house to a residential dwelling.

Mark Fitton said: "The council has wasted a great deal of public money, spending years fighting a battle it was never going to win."

The council had instructed the pair to end residential occupation and reinstate the pub within three months.

However, government planning inspector Chris Baxter found the authority could not take enforcement action because the building had been used continuously as a single residence for at least four years before the notice was served, which met planning law's immunity threshold.

The decision drew on 10 statutory declarations from the Fitton family, as well as photographs and written evidence, describing residential use of the property since November 2019.

Baxter said he was satisfied the dwelling had ceased to be used as a pub before 25 April 2020 and that the building had functioned solely as a home for the required four‑year period.

Following the ruling Mark Fitton, said "After decades of business failure, it was obvious that the Half Moon would never reopen as a pub."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service a community group has been campaigning for the pub to be reopened since 2021, with a survey of local residents revealing widespread support for the proposal.

The building dates back to 1822 but it has not traded as a pub since 2018.

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.