Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 19 September 2022

WETHERSPOONS have been given the ‘thumbs up’ to open a new pub inside of The Crescent – and it is on track to open next year if the premises licence is approved.

As the Hinckley Free Press reported in mid-April, architects working for ‘Spoons lodged planning permission with the Borough Council to transform the former Poundland discount shop next to Sainsbury’s into a brand new pub.

The plans were one of the many which were hit by internal delays with the council’s planning department due to a lack of professional planners, meaning that it took much longer than expected for a decision to be made on the plans.

However, these plans were finally ‘approved’ by planners one week and three days ago (Friday, 9 September).

Whilst they have been given permission to convert the space from a shop to a pub, they now need to apply for a premises licence – which is what would allow them to serve up alcoholic drinks on-site.

This is something that they are currently in the process of doing, a spokesperson confirmed.

JD Wetherspoon spokesman, Eddie Gershon, said: “We are creating a brand new ‘Wetherspoon’ within The Crescent shopping mall complex in the old Poundland building.

“The new 6,000 sq. ft. pub will be filled with ample booth seating and comfy dining furniture, an open gantry kitchen and a proposed 1,200 sq. ft. café style pavement seated area externally.

“The budget cost for this project is currently £2m and the site fit-out is assumed to take 16 weeks to carry out the transformation.

“The proposals are currently going through licensing and Wetherspoon’s architects are in the process of tendering the project. If licensing is approved then Wetherspoon would aim to start development work on the site in early 2023.”

It is believed that the new site will be able to seat a total of 840 customers.

Planning documents show that 80 new jobs would be created for the local area. 30 employees would work full-time, whilst 50 employees would work part-time.

It would trade from 8am to 12am from Monday to Friday, and Saturday. On Sundays and bank holidays, it would trade from 8am until 1am – staying open an hour later.

No new name for the pub has yet been announced, but Wetherspoons pubs are usually named after local historic figures, local fictional stories, or local landmarks.

It will mark the chain’s return to Hinckley after leaving three years ago when they shut the doors to The Baron of Hinckley in September 2019. After closing, The Baron was re-opened as ‘The New Baron’ by Elmesthorpe’s Crafty Pub Group.

In other local pub news, a new real ale bar and coffeehouse named The Clarence is set to open inside of Market Place’s former Yorkshire Bank at the end of October.