Southsea pub loses review to attain asset status

Portsmouth City Council has again decided not to grant Southsea’s Eldon Arms, in Eldon Street, with the status, in a decision made by the authority’s cabinet last week.

Previous attempts by the Eldon Arms Community Preservation Society to earn the status was rejected earlier this year.

It means that if the pub ever goes up for sale, the group would be entitled to submit a bid, starting with a six-month moratorium for supporters to raise the necessary funding.

The pub recently received a sizeable investment to revitalise it.

A letter from a council officer ahead of the meeting said: ‘It is considered that the Eldon Arms does not further the social well being or social interests of the local community or meet the test of being essential to the special character of the local area as set out in Portsmouth City Council’s policy for defining social interests and does not.’