Anyone heard whats happening to this. It closed around Aug and was for sale. Passed it today and saw no for sale signs . The roof looked like it had collapsed a bit here and there and lots of slates removed and stacked near the chimneys . Security fencing right round. Wonder if its the start of reclamation /demolition or whether it having its roof renovated ?

It got terrible reviews towards the end. Check out Trip Advisor. Looks like it was deliberately run down so that the pub co. can now knock it down and put a 400 unit student block/hovel there instead.

looks like the "salvagers" have already started nicking the slates, stacked up ready to go..but possibly disturbed i the process.

The massive ROFTEN site up the road is starting development work so its a shame the pub didn't hold out a bit longer, there would have been a lot more local customers.

Last few times I went the service was dreadful and food wasn't brilliant despite it looking like they had spent a decent amount of money on the place.

OH has just said he was passing earlier in the day than me , and the security gates were open , with various official looking vans and yellow flo jacketed blokes milling about , so maybe its a genuine dismantling but he didnt notice what they were doing.

Is this in the vacinity of the massive development scheme in Willaston/Hooton on Green belt land ? It's planned to be somewhere between Willaston and Hooton.


https://www.legatowen.co.uk/property/the-hooton-hotel-hooton-road-hooton/

The Hooton Hotel is beside Hooton Station, on the other side of the railway is the now flattened Royal Ordnance Factory which has the go ahead for 265 homes so that is a brownfield site.

Across the road is light industrial with some green land leading to the old tip which Cheshire have said they may allow to be used provided there is no impact on the openness of greenbelt. The idea is to tidy up some of the existing industrial usage.

Around the Hooton Hotel especially to the east is green fields and some residential which again Cheshire have said they may allow to be used provided there is no impact on the openness of the greenbelt.

Immediately south of the Hotel is the quite large station car park.

Are you thinking of the Little Sutton/Ledsham development a bit further south?

Maybe, I am thinking of Ledsham, although it was someone in Neston who mentioned about the Willaston development, or the intentions of it at some point being under the same scheme as discussed on here a few weeks ago, about the use Green Belt .

I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but when I asked today at the ticket office inside Hooton station, they said Tesco had bought the land, so very sadly the pub is to be demolished and replaced with a Tesco Metro! This is happening up and down the land but when it happens close to home, to a pub with some character, it leaves you feeling pretty outraged. Like many others, all I wanted was for someone take on the lease and resume running The Hooton as a pub! Once these places are gone they're NEVER COMING BACK, and you have to wonder what can be done to stem the tide of pubs being bulldozed so greedy developers can build yet another block of flats or convenience store no-one has asked for. The Hooton has been run profitably as a pub/restaurant in the past, and as previously remarked it would have benefited greatly from a new housing estate being constructed just down the road. If only it had survived a bit longer and been marketed properly as a going concern! I'd hate to see any more local pubs go the same way, but I realise part of the problem is getting enough people enthused to come together and establish an "asset of community value" or run the place as a collective. Too late now anyway - this is mindless civic vandalism in pursuit of profit, no two ways about it, and CW&C council's planning department should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for approving the application!

I can't see any planning application in yet for the Hooton Hotel site.

Nearby, the site of Hooton Grange on New Chester Road (nearly opposite Chimneys) which I believe still has some remnants of the original buildings has applied outline permission to flatten and build 11 houses. Its current use is Hooton Grange Garage and Cropper & Jones Radiators.

Hooton Grange was the birth home of Robert Hope-Jones who went on to develop foghorns and theatre organs such as the Wurlitzer.

Vote out the Council and let them know why, otherwise they just ride over any public opinion . Nine times out of ten, public don't know what's going on until it's all been done and dusted. What a shame and another quaint connection to the past.

There's a council meeting next week at st Chad's church I believe about the green belt land in our vicinity and the prospect of building thousands of homes continued from last year. If it was being scrapped they wouldn't be holding a meeting would they ?
Not that residents have been informed (that I know of) just a leaflet posted on the notice board of my local church in Pensby. Who is going to see that ?

Its the Government, they have confirmed that Wirral has to plan and build to the ridiculously high outdated figures and ignore the new Government figures.

Hooton is Cheshire not Wirral.

Yes, I know Hooton is Cheshire, but I reverted back to Wirral for the purpose of mentioning the proposed /arranged meeting.
Even if the Government have given a confirmation, it has not decreed where the land should be taken from. We know that developers want prime land, views, open spaces and nice respectable areas.. don't we ?

Not at all, developers want dirt cheap land for bulk house building. Hence they end up with problems like those at The Oaks, Ellesmere Port where there was a recorded history of surface water flooding. Prime expensive land is only used for a very small percentage of house building.

Look at where the bulk housing is being built at the moment. Tranmere (clearance land), Rock Ferry (clearance land), Bromborough (ex-industrial), the North End (clearance land). A lot of developments that in the pipeline are also in sub-prime areas.

Going up-market a bit you get sites like Fisher's Lane, Pensby which can't be described as prime land with a view and open spaces, how many houses will they put there? Eight flats and seven house which doesn't even knock a dent in the Government imposed housing target, you would need to allocate 750 sites that size to meet the target.

The biggest developments in the area (albeit not Wirral) are at Ellesmere Port and Hooton both large ex-industrial sites and both beside railways (which I personally wouldn't mind but others do).

Looking at Hooton, this is a massive site yet only provides 265 homes, the only similar size brownfield land we have is at the old Bidston Dock but that is earmarked for commercial use. We need 45 sites of that size to meet the housing targets.

Wirral just hasn't got the space for the ridiculous targets the Government has set, its no use building houses on industrial land all the time because then you end up with a shortage of jobs because of the lack of industrial land. If greenbelt is going to be invaded its better it is with houses rather than industry which tends to have much taller and imposing buildings.