Redevelopment plans unveiled for The Fighting Cocks pub

The Grade II listed Fighting Cocks pub was built in 1865 to replace an even older pub in the village of Wendens Ambo outside Saffron Walden.

The pub had been awarded funding for development to boost the business but when Covid hit it was forced to shut and the funding was withdrawn.

The proposed development of the site and surrounding land (Image: Audley Inn Limited) A planning and historical statements document says: "When we consider the Covid-19 pandemic and two separate orders by the Government to close pubs, combined with an instruction for everyone to work from home, we can see that a pub that was being financially supported by a car park, which then took no money as no one was parking, was no longer financially viable and as it currently stands with many hybrid workers now working from home it will never recover enough to subsidise pub again and as such is now another business of its time.

"Therefore we must now accept that hybrid working is part of all our futures, as such the pub must adapt and change again as it has so many times before to survive. 

"We want The Fighting Cocks to remain as a pub and venue and to do this it must expand and change and not just as a building but also in what it offers.

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"We have researched the area and looked at what the area lacks and requires. We have analysed how we could offer what is required to fill this gap and allow the Fighting Cocks not only to survive and succeed as a pub but to do this it must also offer itself as a venue that is truly fabulous, which our area is crying out for and in doing this, we will be able to substantially increase and secure local employment.

"We will increase tourism to the area and in some ways, help satisfy the urgent requirement for overnight accommodation in the area as stated in Uttlesford district council’s written policy and we will increase rural employment with the creation of 24 full-time employment positions.

"We have lived and worked in The Fighting Cocks for the last 10 years and have taken into account all that we have learned by living in the building.

"Our proposed plans and the location of the proposed buildings and their orientation are laid out as agreed at pre-application meetings as previously mentioned."