Photo: Richard Youle
A FORMER Gower pub which has been gathering dust could be replaced with affordable homes.
The Monksland bar and grill, which was The Countryman pub before that, has been empty for years and could be knocked down to make way for 21 affordable flats and houses.
Housebuilder Hale Group is behind the plans along with housing association Codi Group and intends to submit a planning application to Swansea Council. It’s been advised by planning officers that it doesn’t need to submit an accompanying environmental impact assessment.
A letter on behalf of Neath-based Hale Group to the council said The Monksland closed in April 2019 and hadn’t reopened as a pub despite extensive marketing to find an alternative operator.
“The building has started to fall into significant disrepair due to the length of vacancy and the windows of the property have been boarded up to prevent against vandalism, leaving the property as an unwelcome addition to the streetscene,” it said.
The proposal is for four one-bedroom flats, 11 two-bed houses, three three-bed houses, three four-bed houses, a play area and open space.
The site is just over an acre, and a farmers’ market used to take place there.
Scurlage is in the Gower national landscape – formerly the Gower area of outstnading natural beauty – and has a doctors’ surgery, pharmacy, shop and sports club.
The letter said: “There would be no loss or change in high quality views across the Gower countryside.”
Hale Group built 14 affordable two and three-bed homes in Scurlage a decade ago in a project applauded by conservation group the Gower Society. The society’s former chairman Robin Kirby said at the time: “The (Gower) peninsula needs more of this type and size of residential housing to accommodate the needs of local people working locally.”
Three years ago a pre-application enquiry for 60 social rented homes on fields leading into Scurlage from the north was submitted by a Mumbles-based businessman, but a full planning application hasn’t been submitted since.
A few miles to the north in Oldwalls, Gower, houses are being built at the former Greyhound Inn, which closed in 2018.
