Concerns raised as Gosport pub closes and future of site is unknown

Residents living next to the Middlecroft pub, in Gosport, are worried future developments could cause problems.

It comes as the pub closed last Sunday and has been sold to a new owner. A planning application has not yet been submitted to Gosport Borough Council.

For people living on Middlecroft Lane, Kingston Road and Grange Crescent, the uncertainty of what it could become is causing worry.

Sara Farrell, who used the pub for fundraisers for her son Aiden, said: ‘The real concern is what it could do for traffic. If it becomes flats, traffic will increase and the roads are busy as it is. Parking is also a problem around here.

‘It would be ideal if it could remain as a pub, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen.’

Her dad, Dennis Morgan, added: ‘We know the pub is gone, but the real concern is what’s going to happen next. People are worried what could be developed there and how it will affect us.’

The weekend the pub shut it held a ladies’ evening and a family fun day which was organised by Sara.

She said: ‘It was the perfect weekend to say goodbye to the pub. The place was buzzing and it is a shame it wasn’t like that more often.’

Stan Lowe, of Kingston Road, used to visit the pub regularly but said it is not a shock it has shut.

‘There have been so many owners recently it is not surprising that it’s shut,’ he said.

‘It has been open and then closed and then open again for the past few years. It has been struggling for a long time.

‘Unfortunately it just was not used enough and sometimes it would be closed by 9.30pm.’

The pub opened around the late 1930s/early 1940s. A petition was started to have a pub built for people living in the area.