Dear Sir/Madam

The Bishop Blaize, Burdrop ref: 09/01275/F

I write to oppose the above application to create 4 letting bedrooms at the above premises on the following grounds:

1. This would appear to be a change of use as the public house has never before had letting bedrooms. The current owner asserts that he is unable to run the business economically and has closed it as such. Unless he reopens it as a public house, the property will then become of an entirely different character ie a house with letting rooms and as such unsuitable for the village.

2. The plans suggest that the existing beer cellar will be replaced by a substantial building. Apart from the possibility that the absence of beer cellar might make it impossible to carry on as a public house, it would also appear that the new building would be unsightly and unsuitable to the hamlet of Burdrop.

3. The local community require the pub to be reopened in the same style as operated extremely successfully by the previous owners and their predecessors. The only other pub in the village is of an entirely different character, being a high class restaurant and pub. There has always hitherto been a need for a village pub of the style of The Bishop Blaize and if the current owner is unable to carry on this business profitably, he should sell it and enable others to do so. The previous owner attracted business not only from the immediate villages of Burdrop, Sibford Gower and Sibford Ferris but from a wide area around in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. It is understood that others have offered to purchase and reopen the pub on these lines and the present owner should allow this to happen.

Yours faithfully

Norman C R Nash