Rochford Conservative Club takes over the Old Ship pub (From Echo)

Rochford Conservative Club takes over the Old Ship pub

4:30pm Tuesday 2nd February 2010 in

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AN empty pub will be given a new lease of life as the headquarters of Rochford Conservative Club.

Masons pub, formerly the Old Ship pub, in North Street, Rochford, is set to become the new home for the Tories.

An application has been submitted to Rochford Council’s planning department for a change of use of the ground floor from a pub to a members’ club, with some internal alterations.

The pub has been closed for almost three years.

Plans already submitted for flats above the property are still set to go ahead.

Rochford Conservative Club has been struggling financially for some time, and the committee last year began a search for smaller premises to reduce overheads.

Club member and Rochford ward councillor Gillian Lucas-Gill said: “It would have been a shame for us to relocate out of Rochford. It will also be good to see the empty pub in use again.”

The club has been based at the Old Bakehouse, Back Lane, Rochford, since the mid-Eighties.