Real ale campaigners say the community of Nottingham has been ‘let down’ after a last-ditch plan to safeguard the future of a historic pub was turned down. The Plough Inn in Radford – that had been run by the Nottingham Brewery – closed in October, with the operators saying they’d been running at a loss of £1,000 a week due to energy bills, taxes and employment costs . After news of the closure emerged, members of Nottingham’s Campaign for Real Ale submitted an application for the pub , in St Peter’s Street, to be made an Asset of Community Value [ACV]. The status, previously afforded in 2016, lasts for five years and expired in 2021. When buildings of social, cultural or sporting interest are listed as an ACV with a council, it means locals will be informed if they are listed for sale and allows the community the chance to buy it, with a moratorium period of six months to raise the funds. But the ACV status was rejected by Nottingham City Council on April 1 . Council officers said the pub had no future as a viable business and that no interested parties had come forward to register their interest. The officers added that, if the ACV status was granted, it would likely result in an “empty and deteriorating building, which would not further the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community”. Andrew Ludlow, the secretary of the Nottingham branch of CAMRA, said that if the decision had been made earlier, community stakeholders would have had a chance to revive the pub. He said: “An enormous amount of time has transpired since it was shut, there are so few pubs in that area that the loss of an old established community pub is dreadful. “It’s a remarkable rejection because the whole concept of the Localism Act 2011 was to allow communities to come together and to buy the asset. “But what the council has appeared to have done is decided that they are not going to let the community raise the cash to buy the pub – they have let down the community of Nottingham. “We had one or two people who made contact who said, if there was an ACV, they would build from that. You can hardly create a group if you haven’t got any support, and the ACV would have been that support, the opportunity to buy the pub. “It’s a devastating decision.” CAMRA argued that it was a last bastion of public houses in Radford , but agreed with the owner’s comments that changing demographics would make it harder for a pub to attract customers, given the growing student population and the lack of industry. Birmingham-based Silhill Brewery has recently taken over Nottingham Brewery, with its operations temporarily moved out of the city before returning to a new site in The Meadows . Adam Stevenson, operations director for Silhill Brewery, said, ultimately, the pub wasn’t viable due to the area it’s in. “We looked at the number, and even if we rented it for a £1 we still wouldn’t have made money from it,” he said. “Contrary to popular belief, we were offered a licence to occupy both the pub and the brewery, but it wasn’t all fit for purpose, and the licence to occupy would have been a short-term thing. “The pub was just not financially viable – by the time you paid the rent, the rates and the bills, you were losing around £300 a week. “It’s always sad to see a pub go – it really breaks my heart, but, if it’s not viable, then it just couldn’t keep going. “It’s also the area that it was in, unfortunately – it just can’t support a community pub. There are probably 10 pubs from back in the day around Radford that were amazing boozers, and they have all shut down- there was a pub on every corner, I know the area really well.” New plans to build student flats on the site of the former Nottingham Brewery – behind The Plough – were submitted to the city council in November. Those plans retain the vacant pub building but locals fear there’s a danger that the pub could also be converted into homes and lost forever.