A PIONEERING bid has been launched to secure protected status for all of Otley’s pubs.

Otley Pub Club has submitted a multiple application, thought to be the first of its kind, to have all of the town’s 20 inns listed as Assets of Community Value (ACV).

Currently, under permitted development rights, pubs can be knocked down or sold for other uses without the need for planning permission.

But if the club’s bid to Leeds City Council is successful, the new status would mean anyone wishing to do so in Otley would have to put their scheme through the planning process.

Pub club chairman Andy Fitzgerald said: “We are seeking to protect all of Otley’s pubs with the status of Assets of Community Value because they are an integral part of our historic town and part of its wide appeal.

“As a voluntary community organisation we have a successful track record of fighting to retain the town’s pubs and have succeeded in pressuring pub companies into re-opening closed pubs and investing.

“If successful, this application will provide added protection.”

The club’s honorary president MP Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Leeds North West), who chairs the Parliamentary Save the Pub group, was among those who lobbied for the planning change to apply to any inn listed as an ACV.