Campaigners have written a letter to their MP asking him to save their local pub.

Residents are calling on the White Lion in Crays Pond near Wallingford to be reopened after it closed more than 10 years ago.

The Crays Pond Community Group fears that the pub may be turned into a home by the owner.

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The letter by residents comes amid a campaign for a change in planning laws that would mean no pub could be sold for alternative use until it had been on the market for at least a year.

The community group has now called on Henley MP John Howell for help.

Oxford Mail: Henley MP John Howell Henley MP John Howell

The White Lion was bought by Satwinder Sandhu back in 2013 and he lived there unlawfully until 2019, when he was forced out by the High Court.

Travellers moved onto the derelict site in 2021 as part of the boundary fence had collapsed.  

The Crays Pond Community Group applied to South Oxfordshire District Council to make the pub an Asset of Community Value.

This means that the building cannot be sold by the owner until the community has had six months to make an offer on it.

The application was successful at which point Mr Sandhu put the White Lion up for sale.

John Densum from the Crays Pond Community Group explained that the community put in an offer in the region of £300,000, but Mr Sandu then withdrew the property from sale.

He added that the White Lion continues to deteriorate today and is ‘no longer the beating heart of the village.’