No University of Sheffield support for plan to list pub as asset of community value

The city’s branch of the Campaign for Real Ale has applied to the council to list the University Arms, next to the Information Commons building. If a pub becomes an asset of community value, or ACV, it cannot be converted or demolished without planning permission, and local residents have six months to make an offer if the pub is put on the market.

The objection was revealed in a six-page letter from London-based law firm Pinsent Masons, which claims CAMRA is trying to ‘limit the university’s ability to develop this part of its estate for the benefits of its staff and students’.

The university’s 10-year campus masterplan contains a proposal to demolish the pub.

Sheffield CAMRA’s pub heritage officer Dave Pickersgill said: “We were very surprised to receive this letter as we believe that ACV status is something of which any pub would be proud. It is a clear indication that the pub matters to the community.

“We do not understand why the university should be against the award of such status, especially as two recent reports for the university indicate that we seem to have many common aims and ideas.”

A previous application to list pub was rejected last year.

A university spokesman said: “Since last year’s failed application, the university does not feel the material circumstances have changed, hence the position remains the same.”