Former Milton Keynes pub deemed ‘economically unviable’ could make way for new homes

Paul Newman New Homes (PNNH) has submitted to Milton Keynes Council a planning application for The Foresters Arms site on Newport Road in New Bradwell.

Plans outline the demolition of the pub and the erection of nine new homes (six three-bed houses, three flats), with 20 parking spaces.

A new vehicle access is also proposed.

A similar scheme by PNNH was formally withdrawn in March this year.

And yet an even earlier scheme was also withdrawn in September 2021 after “a number of” consultee comments and “request for additional information”.

The former pub which had a play area, beer garden and car park, is currently vacant having ceased trading in March 2020. A report states it was providing “very low returns”, no rental income, and “limited income from beer supply”. “The pub therefore ceased to be an economically viable proposition,” it adds.

After a long bidding process about its future, the premises was sold for development to PNNH, in September 2020.

“It is not considered that the loss of the facility would be to the detriment of the local community given that an alternative, and more attractive public house, in the form of the New Inn is located some 250m from the site,” a planning statement reads.

Council officers will now decide what becomes of the application.

New Bradwell or Bradwell (Stantonbury) as they used to call it was built as an overflow for workers at the Wolverton Railway Works in around the late 18th to early 19th century. The pub had two bars.