Only pub in village set for reopening

The only pub in a South Staffordshire village is poised to re-open following its sudden closure earlier this year.

Residents in Lapley, near Penkridge, said the village had lost its focal point when the Vaughan Arms shut.

Its demise followed the closure of the village post office, a threat to remove its only phone box and an Oxford University study that ranked Lapley seventh among the most deprived areas across the country for villagers’ ease of access to important local services and facilities.

Now businessman Mike Healey, whose wife Denise’s company PH-UK Inn Pubs owns the Vaughan Arms, has revealed plans to relaunch it.

Redevelopment of the building has already started in the hope it could be back in business before the end of the year, subject to planning permission.

Mr Healey said: “We want to give the village the kind of pub it deserves. Village pubs are dropping like flies because of the phenomenally hard trading conditions and more will shutting, but we are confident that we can make a success of the Vaughan Arms if the circumstances are right.”

PH-UK Inn Pubs, which also owns the York Hotel in Tettenhall and the Four Crosses in Hinstock, Shropshire, has owned the Vaughan Arms for three years.

Mr Healey added: “We didn’t have the right people to run it and will now be taking control ourselves. We are not planning a pie and a pint pub but one that serves a class of food in keeping with the character of the village.”

South Staffordshire district councillor Roy Wright, who has lived in Lapley for 53 years, said today: “We really need the pub as a focal point for the village.”

Residents also insist the village phone box is vital because of the increasing numbers of walkers passing through the village on the Staffordshire Way in an area where mobile reception can be poor. Villagers want the red phone box retained, even if BT does axe the line.