RESIDENTS have scored an important victory in a battle to keep their pub.

Oxford City Council has designated the Fairview Inn in Headington as an asset of community value. The pub has become only the second site in Oxford to be listed as such, after the Kassam Stadium earlier this year.

Residents in the area decided to put in the bid after the current owner, Enterprise Inns, elected to put the pub on the market.

Fleurets, a property company which specialises in pubs and restaurants, describes the Fairview Inn as being in a “prominent corner location with “alternative use potential”.

A buyer for the pub in Glebelands has been found but contracts have not yet been exchanged. Glebelands resident Darren Grant said: “The sale has not yet been completed as far as I am aware so this may delay the sale.

“Even if the sale is completed and the new owner applies to change the use from a pub to something else this will give it significant protection.

“It is well supported by the community and is used by a lot of people in various groups. The residents’ and tenants’ association uses it as a meeting place.”

The Fairview Inn was built by Reading-based brewers H & G Simonds and opened in September 1959.

Despite its relative youth, the pub is considered by the Campaign for Real Ale an historically important one.

It is listed on CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors as having “wonderful” full-height wall panelling.

Legislation which came into force in 2012 means communities can register assets as being of “community value”, which gives them a right to bid for them.

It allow communities six months to raise finance and put together a bid to buy an asset if it goes on sale.

In a report agreeing to register the pub, head of city development Michael Crofton Briggs said: “The Fairview Inn has an important community function. It is a venue within a predominantly residential area, providing a place for the local community to come together.

A letter had been received from Enterprise Inns asking for the process to be put on hold as it could delay the sale.

Amy Dolphin, of Enterprise Inns, said plans to sell the pub remained unchanged.