CAMPAIGNERS were this week celebrating what they believe is victory in their battle against plans to build a new convenience store on the car park of a popular Wollescote pub.

Dudley Council has approved an application by UKIP calling for the Hare & Hounds in Wynall Lane to be designated as an Asset of Community Value.

The application, submitted as part of the party's Save Our Pubs campaign, was made after owners NewRiver Retail confirmed plans were afoot to build a new Co-op store on the car park next to the pub.

Campaigners rallied to gain support to have their much-loved boozer listed as an ACV which aims to prevent pub owners selling or leasing long-term any part of the building without first giving locals chance to buy it themselves.

West Midlands UKIP MEP James Carver said: “Hopefully, we can now raise a pint to a brighter and more secure future for this popular pub."

He said UKIP would continue to monitor the situation and he is calling on NewRiver to drop their Co-op plan.

Fellow West Midlands MEP Bill Etheridge added: “It has been a spirited campaign and I am glad to see this latest step taken on the road to defeat the convenience store application.”

Pub landlord Lee Sargeant had been worried development of the car park would wreck function room trade as guests would have nowhere to park, and he said the pub's status as an ACV was "really good news", adding: "Everybody's upbeat about it. The council have got to speak to NewRiver and see if they appeal but hopefully they'll back off."

Any voluntary or community organisations can nominate land or property of importance to the community to be included on the authority's Assets of Community Value register which provides extra protection from development under the Localism Act 2011.

Up until now the only asset listed on the borough's register has been Sedgley's Severn Stars pub, which had been under threat of being converted into a Morrisons supermarket.

However - a spokesman for NewRiver Retail, which acquired the Hare and Hounds from Marston’s as part of a portfolio of 202 public houses in late 2013, said: “A number of the pubs which we own have been accorded Asset of Community Value status, which gives a ‘right to bid’ to anybody in the local community should the property ever be put on the market.

"The Hare and Hounds is not for sale and our intention is to retain this pub and operate it long into the future alongside a new convenience store. The ACV designation makes no difference to that and we have successfully received planning permission at other sites for convenience stores where a local authority has listed a pub owned by us as a community asset.”

Councillor Tim Crumpton, cabinet member for community council, said listing the building as an ACV showed the council had listened to the people and was prepared to "support them with their ambitions to create thriving communities" and he added: "As a local councillor - the idea we have a supermarket on that corner is ludicrous. We have enough problems with traffic. We would rather see it remain as the well-loved pub it has always been.”