A call to convert a former Pembrokeshire village pub to flats which drew objections from the local Community Council has been refused by county planners for a second time.

Sandra Davis, of O & D Enterprises Ltd, applied through Gerald Blain Associates Limited to partly regularise the conversion of the Drovers Arms in Puncheston into three flats.

The application followed a 2025 refusal for a similar scheme involving four flats.

A supporting statement said the earlier application sought to regularise work carried out in early 2024 that was covered by a Pembrokeshire County Council enforcement notice.

It said the pub stopped trading in 2022 after the previous landlord left, and the premises were returned to the owner and applicant.

The statement said the British Beer and Pub Association reported that 2,250 UK pubs had closed over five years, including 289 in 2024, adding: “The challenges are particularly acute in rural areas such as Puncheston, where both population density and passing trade are limited.

“Many rural pubs depend heavily on seasonal summer trade, which makes achieving year-round sustainability even more difficult.”

An officer’s report recommending refusal said Puncheston Community Council objected to the pub’s loss, its impact on village life, inadequate services and fears of increased anti-social behaviour. Ten members of the public also objected.

It was refused because it could increase foul wastewater, lacked enough information about drainage proposals and would mean the loss of the pub as a community facility.

Since then, a fresh application has been submitted, but Puncheston Community Council again objected over the loss of a community facility, access and rights of way, the scheme’s scale and a lack of local amenities and infrastructure.

Seven members of the public also sent letters opposing the scheme.

The application was refused because there was insufficient information about foul drainage; it “would result in the permanent loss of a community facility in the form of a public house”; the applicant had “failed to provide sufficient and robust evidence to demonstrate either that the existing use is no longer economically viable or capable of continued community use”; and the conversion “fails to provide a satisfactory standard of residential amenity for future occupiers”.

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The enforcement notice covered the change of use of the ground floor, replacement of a flat roof with a pitched standing-seam roof and installation of UPVC cladding.