It has come to our notice that the owners of the Bishop Blaize Public House have submitted a planning application for change of use to residential, in other words wishing to de-licence the premises. We have only lived in the village of Sibford Ferris for a few months but feel very strongly that this application should be denied. The Bishop Blaize once had an excellent reputation and drew customers from a wide area. It has a lovely garden with a view down the valley between the Gower and the Ferris. It is a huge pity that the current owners have not kept the public house open and those of us who live in the village deeply regret this fact. A well run public house is the hub of a village and without its own public house (technically in Burdrop I suppose rather than the Gower), the village is the poorer. This is a lovely place to live but life here would certainly be enhanced with the addition of a warm and friendly pub so the prospect of losing forever that possibility is very alarming. There is no reason why, in the right hands, these premises should not be run profitably as was the case until a few years ago. The area has a number of very successful public houses, each with their own character, and our village deserves to benefit from this facility as pretty much every other village benefits in the vicinity.

It seems clear that the current owners have already tried in the past to obtain change of use. This could be seen as a cynical attempt to buy a property and then capitalise on its land area and intrinsic worth by obtaining change of use and making a very large profit on any future sale.