VILLAGERS at Well, near Bedale, are fighting the threatened permanent closure of their only pub, where the licensee has claimed he paid only £1 for the goodwill of the business.

Mr Mark Wilson has upset residents by lodging a planning application to convert the Milbank Arms, which has been closed since April, into a house.

He faced a barrage of questions, and some personal criticism of the way in which he ran the pub, on Wednesday at a public meeting attended by villagers of all ages who asked him to think again.

Mr Wilson said he had made no efforts to sell the Milbank Arms as a going concern because he and his wife regarded it as a home first and a business second. The pub had finally failed, he claimed, because it had not been supported by enough villagers, despite a "use it or lose it" plea.

But villagers who said Well had already lost its school, shop and post office pointed out that the Prince of Wales had said that a pub should be the hub of village life. Loss of the Milbank Arms would turn Well into a dormitory village.

Mrs Gwen Pritchard, a previous licensee, said in a letter to the meeting that she had spent 12 years making a living until she retired in 1982 and was sad to hear that the Milbank Arms could be lost forever.

Mrs Pritchard said local customers were the bread and butter of a village pub and asked what had been done at the Milbank Arms to attract newcomers to Well. The Bedale hunt had been a great source of revenue for the pub, which could be the venue for all village meetings.

But Mr Wilson, who took over the Milbank Arms three years ago, said it had been in decline over the past 15 years, with about a dozen different owners.

In addition to the purchase price, he and his wife had ploughed £40,000 of their own money into the business. They would only consider selling if they got a reasonable price which enabled them to recoup the outlay.

Mr Wilson said: "When we took over we had dreams and aspirations which we did not achieve but it was not for want of trying. The last thing we wanted was to close the business. I paid £1 for the goodwill of the business because there was not deemed to be any business."

The meeting was attended by Mr Maurice Cann, head of development control at Hambleton District Council, who said present planning policies acknowledged an increase in the closure of village pubs and the importance of trying to retain such focal points for a community.

He added: "They cannot always be retained at all costs, but the aim is to ensure that every possible avenue has been explored first.

"We would want to know what action had been taken to keep a pub viable, what efforts had been made to market it as a going concern at a realistic price and the possibility of providing more social activities by including a shop and post office."

Mr Wilson's application is also being opposed by the parish council, but it is not yet known whether a decision will be made by Hambleton officers under delegated powers or by the full development control committee on September 6