Planners are hoping to include more support and protection for local pubs in the new South Warwickshire Local Plan (SWLP).

The major planning document will feature not only details of where up to 35,000 new homes may be built before 2050, but also plans to boost the local economy.

Following a string of pub closures, councillors in Stratford last year set up a group to help prevent further "undue loss of public houses".

The group recommended more protection be given to local inns and more onus be placed on developers to demonstrate pubs are no longer commercially viable before they are repurposed.

The benefits of registering pubs as assets of community value were also pushed. Such a rubberstamp would mean the public would be given six months to raise the funds to buy a pub, should it be up for sale.

The findings of the group have now been endorsed by Stratford-on-Avon District Council, and are now being reviewed as part of making the new South Warwickshire Local Plan.

Cllr George Cowcher, deputy leader of Stratford-on-Avon District Council, said: "This much-needed piece of work will allow the district council to ensure it is enforcing planning policies to their fullest extent and preventing the loss of public houses that play such an important part in the lives of so many of our residents."

The SWLP is being developed by Warwick and Stratford District Councils.

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A new timeline for the plan was also agreed last year. Originally supposed to be adopted in 2025, it is now not expected until at least 2027.

The councils have recently rejected the idea of spreading houses out evenly across towns and villages in the south of the county, saying the infrastructure is not appropriate in many of the smaller settlements.

A survey into the future of the green belt is also currently underway.