The owner of a 300-year-old village pub building has reapplied to convert the premises into a house.

Carol Enifer has reapplied for the former Fox and Hounds, near Fakenham, to be changed from a commercial building into a single residential home.

The application to Breckland Council also includes plans to change the car park into a garden for private use. 

The Fox and Hounds, in Weasenham St Peter, had been refused an application to be turned into a home in 2023 after the council ruled that the conversion would be a loss to the community. 

Villagers agreed, calling the Fox and Hounds an "institution and a social asset", and added that the next nearest pub would be three miles away if this one were to close.

Due to economic instability, the pub closed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and then remained closed after the landlord, Daniel Enifer, died in the same year.

It was put up for sale the following year but has been unsuccessful in finding a buyer.

Carol and Daniel Enifer ran the pub together for more than 20 years before he died. 

Now, Mrs Enifer, the applicant, is taking another crack at converting the former pub into a home.

In the application, it was said that the cost to run a pub continues to be an issue for businesses across the country, with 10 closing every day in 2023. 

A planning statement said: "Rural pubs seem to have been affected most by the social changes and whilst the pub is the last one in the village, it has not been a viable business for many years and was effectively subsidised by the Enifer family."

There was also a concern that the previous application's proposed access to the site through the road was unsafe. 

However, in the revised version, access has been moved to the far end of the car park, and away from the junction.