The future of a Baldrine public house is still up in the air after the owner’s appeal against its planning application being rejected was dismissed.

Brewers Heron and Brearley had applied (18/00870/C) to change the Liverpool Arms into a residential property, however this was rejected by planners.

The company said in its application that the public house was no longer viable as a business and so it wanted to sell it as a domestic residence.

Heron and Brearley’s application said: ’We have had no interest in the property since it closed last year when the previous tenant vacated, leaving a trading debt of £14,000 plus £3,000 in rent.’

It added: ’With limited trade in the summer months due to a number of factors including location and difficulty in recruiting staff combined with its unsuitability in the winter months, operating the site is no longer a viable option for us.’

However, this was rejected back in February by the planning committee who said the evidence submitted ’was insufficient to justify the loss of the public house’.

The company appealed against that decision. However following a report by an independent planner, Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Geoffrey Boot has sided with planners and dismissed the appeal.

Mr Boot said: ’It has not been adequately demonstrated that the use is redundant and viable no longer or cannot be made commercially viable or that there has been sufficient evidence of attempts to market the property as a public house/restaurant to justify the loss of the public house.’

A similar reason was previously given in rejected similar applications for the Waterfall pub in Glen Maye and the Bridge Inn in Laxey.

The Liverpool Arms closed its doors in 2017 and has since been boarded up.