The redevelopment of a former village pub will receive a £400,000 boost from the East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCCA) after it was deemed suitable for a grant.
The Three Lions pub, on Netherfield Lane in Meden Vale, is being demolished and replaced with 41 properties by Jigsaw Homes, after a campaign to stop it being knocked down was unsuccessful.
The development was one of dozens to apply to EMCCA for money from its Brownfield Housing Fund – cash designated specifically for use in the regeneration of abandoned and derelict sites that have been built on in the past.
EMCCA’s money is only funding 20 of the homes, with the entire project costing nearly £8.5m.
All the properties will be social housing and count as ‘affordable homes’.
EMCCA documents confirming the approval of the grant say: “The homes address a shortage of affordable provision, where the undersupply of need increases annually. Development plans for this site had stalled since the public house closure due to excessive abnormal site remediation costs.
“Without support, the scheme would not proceed, and the shortage of affordable homes for rent will be exacerbated.”
The Three Lions had been closed since 2022 but was subject to a long-running saga over its future after villagers tried to save the building.
Built in 1967, the pub was the only one in the village of Meden Vale, which sits to the east of the A60 just past Warsop and Church Warsop.
But after struggles before and after the coronavirus pandemic, plans were first lodged to replace the establishment with properties in 2021.
Phil Shields (Ind), who represented the local ward on Mansfield District Council at the time, led the campaign against the plans, pushing for the pub to be listed as an “asset of community value”, giving it protected status and stopping it from being so easy for permission to be granted for its demolition.
This status was granted, and locals were told that if they could stump up the money to buy the pub, they could purchase it.
But after six months, no bid had materialised.
A new planning application was then lodged for a similar-sized development in mid-2022.
Mansfield District Council gave planning permission for this in January 2026, nearly four years on.
The new homes will be made up of 28 one-bedroom apartments, one two-bedroom bungalow, seven two-bedroom houses, and five three-bedroom houses.
They will be split over four residential blocks on two parcels of land.
Work to demolish the existing building and build the new ones is expected to take 65 weeks to complete.
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