A MOTHER and daughter fighting to save their local boozer will continue their battle after councillors met them halfway.

Lesley and Rebecca Tyler beamed in disbelief as a planning committee defied expert recommendation, deferring an application to turn The Plough into houses.

The shock decision about the Sutton Courtenay watering hole was made after impassioned please to members of Vale of White Horse District Council.

Rebecca Tyler told members at a meeting on Wednesday: "We want a strong community, especially with the new houses which will double the size of the village.

"We are just turning into a load of houses, nobody will know who lives next door."

She argued that three other pubs in the village were restaurants rather than traditional drinking pubs like The Plough, which provided a home for community groups and sports teams before its closure earlier this year.

She noted that it was on the other side of the village and closest to approved sites for hundreds of new houses.

Referring to a report from council workers who deemed the pub commercially unviable, she said: "It's not been given a chance."

She criticised the former landlord for shutting the pub at peak times, telling councillors: "We can all agree if a pub is shut at 6pm on a Friday and Saturday we would not be surprised it doesn't make a viable trade."

Planning committee member Jenny Hannaby agreed, adding: "It has been a good pub but it's been run down possibly, or not had the right management."

Mrs Tyler is part of campaign group which has applied to get the High Street pub registered as an asset of community value, which would buy residents time to buy it.

The Plough, which dates back to 1830, was run by Abingdon brewery Morland for years until it was acquired by Greene King.

In 2014 it was bought by new pub company Hawthorn Leisure along with a slew of other Oxfordshire inns.

Hawthorn submitted a planning application in June this year to turn the pub and its car park into two detached family houses.

However it is now understood Hawthorn has sold the pub to a new owner, as it recently did with the Saxton Arms in Abingdon.

A spokesman for the pub's new owner told councillors at the meeting the pub was selling a "maximum of 50 pints a week" and urged residents to "accept it is no longer commercially viable".

Planning officers recommended that councillors approved the application, noting a "negative viability" report that was not made available to members.

After heated debate in which it looked as though the application might be rejected altogether, they agreed to defer the decision until they had read the report.

Drayton district councillor Stuart Davenport told his colleagues: "We are completely blind as to what's behind the report. We can't look into the future and say it wouldn't work. We can support a deferral because of the severe harm done to the social fabric of Sutton Courtenay were the pub to be buried."

Speaking after the meeting Lesley Tyler, 51, described the outcome as a "good compromise", adding: "It felt like all this fight was actually worth it."

See the application online at whitehorsedc.gov.uk P16/V1457/FUL