CAMPAIGNERS battling plans to build a new convenience store on the car park of a popular Wollescote pub have called for the site to be protected as a community asset.

An application has been submitted to turn the Hare & Hounds in Wynall Lane into an Asset of Community Value which, if successful, would stop the owners of the pub selling off or leasing long-term any part of the building without first giving locals chance to buy it themselves.

The application, submitted by UKIP, comes after owners NewRiver Retail confirmed plans were afoot to build a new Co-op store on the car park next to the pub which is a thriving hub for football, pool and darts teams and a popular venue for funeral parties and christenings.

But landlord Lee Sargeant and partner Wendy Wilde fear development on the car park would cause their function room trade to dry up altogether as guests would have nowhere to park.

The couple say they had no trouble finding 21 signatures needed to submit the Asset of Community Value application which has been handed into Dudley Council.

Lee told the News: "I'm having lots of letters from people protesting. Residents around here are proper angry. All I want is to keep my car park.

"This pub is an absolute hub of the community. We've made it ten times more successful than it was when I first took it on and at the end of the day it's my house."

West Midlands MEP James Carver, UKIP's Parliamentary candidate for Stourbridge - who is backing the party's Save Our Pubs campaign, said of the application to protect the Hare and Hounds: "I hope Dudley Council accept this application and realise this development not only threatens the pub but also the livelihoods of several small shopkeepers.

“We should be supporting our pubs and local businesses and enabling this thriving business to keep its car park is the only sensible move.”

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

The only asset currently listed on Dudley borough's register is the Severn Stars pub in Sedgley, which had been under threat of being converted into a Morrisons supermarket.

Dudley Council is expected to make a decision as to whether the Hare and Hounds can also be included on the register within eight weeks.