A CITY pub which has stood empty for more than a year could get a new lease of life as a guesthouse.

The owners of the former Osney Arms pub in Botley Road have made a change of use application to Oxford City Council.

They want to convert the pub into 11 guest rooms to be offered to young professionals who stay in the city during the week.

Planning agent Linda Wright said her clients had proof the pub was unviable in its current state.

She said: “The pub has been on the market for 12 months and there have been significant attempts to sell it as a going concern.

“Council policy states that where a pub is found to be unviable, the council should approve a change of use.

“There is a difference between the change of use from a pub to a residential property and what is being proposed.

“With the change to a residential property, you lose that community part of the pub, but in this case we’re not going to do that.”

She said the pub was ideally placed to become a guesthouse for young professionals as it was near to Oxford train station.

Tony Goulding, from the Oxford branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, said he had “some sympathy” with the plans and described the use of the building as a guesthouse as “the next best thing” to bringing the pub back into use.

He said: “Technically we would like to see it remain as a pub, and we would hope that the owner has explored all avenues to try to make it viable as a pub or to sell it on as a pub.

“If it has to go then we think a guesthouse would be a viable option, the best of all the bad things which could happen to a pub.”

Mr Goulding called on the Government to bring in new legislation to allow councils to take a detailed look at the business history of a premises to check the viability of a pub before granting planning permission for changes of use.

He said: “It will always be questionable whether people have actually made an effort to run places as pubs before going for the easy option. I’m not saying that’s the case with this pub, but in a lot of cases that’s what happens.”

Former landlady of the Osney Arms, Maria Oliver, said: “Well nobody wanted it as a pub so that is that.

“I have been there 28 years and don’t really know how I feel about it. It’s fine I guess.”