THE future of a West Oxford pub has been thrown further into doubt after its owners applied to use it as a house of multiple occupation (HMO).

The Holly Bush in Osney Island was operating as a shisha lounge until July when Oxford City Council turned down a retrospective planning application.

The owner has since let out some of the rooms as a B&B and created office space to “minimise costs”. They have had to apply for a temporary change of use until March.

Krystian Volak, of Holly Bush Property LTD, said he did not intend to keep it as an HMO and office and insisted the pub’s future was undecided.

Mr Volak said: “We started to let out some of the B&B rooms and utilised some of the pub space as an office to minimise costs.

“Since we do not plan to keep it as an HMO/office we have only applied for a temporary change of use.”

In May the owner tried to extend the pub’s opening hours to 3am at weekends in a bid to make it more viable.

Residents and Thames Valley Police objected and Oxford City Council’s licensing and gambling acts casework committee allowed the licensing application, but only until midnight.

Mr Volak said: “We have not yet made a formal decision on what to do with the Holly Bush.

“Following a long summer of very strong opposition to our application to relicence and reopen the pub by local residents we have decided to keep it closed for the moment and there are no immediate plans to reopen it.”

There are only three other pubs left in the whole of West Oxford – the Kite in Mill Street, the Perch in Binsey and the Punter, which is also on Osney Island.

The Osney Arms in Botley Road closed in November 2011 and opened as a guesthouse in September 2013.

Greene King sold the George Inn further down Botley Road in May 2011. It is now used by hi-fi retailer Richer Sounds.

Once there were seven pubs in the area, including the Carpenters Arms – now McDonald’s – and the White House, now a Chinese restaurant.

Chairman of Osney Island Residents’ Association Judy Carroll said: “We have lost all our pubs except for the Kite and the Punter, which is more of a restaurant now.

“People are worried about losing something we see as a community asset. We need it as a place to meet.

“We would like to keep it as pub – an open community space.”

Oxford city councillor for Osney, Susanna Pressel, said: “A lot of people in the West Oxford area have been in touch with me to say they would be very sorry to see this pub close.

“When the current owners bought the pub a couple of years ago, we were worried they might wish to turn it into something else, so we organised a large survey of residents in the Botley Road area.

“In an attempt to be helpful to the new owners, we sent them the results of the survey.”

She added: “Unfortunately, they seem so far to have made no attempt to provide the sort of pub people want. In fact they haven’t really run it as a pub at all. It has been closed for a lot of the time, including last summer, when there was a shisha lounge in a large marquee at the back for many weeks.”