Paul Hollywood has branded locals as ‘unforgivable’ after he criticized his wife’s plans to close a ‘beautiful’ village pub.
Melissa Spalding and celebrity baker Paul have raised more than £80,000 to try to save The Checkers, near Ashford, Kent.
But he said it no longer worked as a business, so his family submitted plans to build a home earlier this year.
Now a TV chef says locals need to raise money to buy a 600-year-old boozer – because they can’t survive without supporting it.
After a tense planning meeting, where locals said they had made more than one offer but couldn’t agree or fully engage with us, the host of The Great British Bake Off raged at the ‘vindictiveness’ of the criminals.
He told BBC South East: ‘The response from local residents to a family who have been here for 18 years is unforgivable.
Paul Hollywood says locals need to raise money to buy their own 600-year-old boozer – because he says it can’t survive without support.
The Checkers, near Ashford, Kent, is no longer viable as a business, so Mrs Hollywood’s family submitted plans to build a home earlier this year.
‘If the villagers themselves want to get their act together and make an offer and buy, that’s fine.
‘At the end of the month it was earmarked to close because they could not sustain the money coming in because there was no money coming in.’
Melissa has told councilors her parents have spent huge sums trying to keep them afloat but said the business is ‘dead on its feet’.
On Wednesday, at a meeting of Ashford Borough Council’s planning committee, councilors voted seven to five in favor of making it a residential property.
This was met with anger from residents who believed that the village of Smarden would now be ‘destroyed’.
During the meeting, it was revealed how long the pair had been trying to sell the business as a pub.
This includes being marketed with four different estate agents from November 2020.
The Smarden Community Pub Group – which is fighting to ‘preserve’ the boozer as a ‘community asset’ – claims it has put in more than one offer to buy the establishment, but says it has been rebuffed.
During the meeting, it was revealed how long the pair had been trying to sell the business as a pub
Blasting local residents at a planning meeting (pictured), Mrs Hollywood fumed: ‘Unfortunately the last six months have brought out the worst in human behaviour.
Melissa Spalding and celebrity baker Paul have pledged more than £80,000 to try to save The Checkers, near Ashford, Kent.
Deputy said: ‘We as a group have made more than one offer to the owner to buy the inn on the basis of the community, but it is just not possible to get people to agree or participate fully with us so that we can move forward because they are visible. other intentions in the development potential of the site.
“We feel that once we’ve been on board for the past several months, we’ll be a long way from achieving that goal. We’re eager but we can’t move forward without an agreement.’
Hollywood blasted this as a ‘lie’, and said it only had one offer. He further claimed that many people at council meetings did not drink at The Checkers – saying: ‘that’s the classic saying “use it or lose it”‘.
He added that the offer he received was ‘unrealistic’.
Local residents have called on Great British Bake Off stars to intervene.
But he told the BBC that he had given ‘a lot of money’ but the business had only lost money – and that he was ‘not a charity’.
Pub owner Glenn Spalding – the father of Mrs Hollywood – submitted plans in January to convert the 16th-century building into a single-family home.
The plan means no external or internal physical work is required on the property.
Hollywood has blasted locals who claimed they had tried to buy the pub as a ‘fraud’, and said there was only one offer.
Hollywood reportedly met Ms Spalding in a pub four years ago, and she has been a landlady for 16 years.
It’s unclear whether any of the Spalding family plans to live on the property after it’s converted into a home, or whether it will be sold.
Slamming the local in the planning meeting, Mrs Hollywood fumed: ‘Unfortunately the last six months have shown us the worst in people’s behaviour.
‘Insults and personal attacks are unforgivable. We have owned and operated The Checkers Inn for nearly 17 years and put our heart and soul into it.
‘Ask yourself, would you work 12- to 16-hour shifts a day just for the loss, and would you do that if you were 80 years old with a life-threatening heart condition?’
He said the hope was that a buyer would buy the pub so it could continue as a boozer, but it needed to have a safety net in case the business failed.
In response to these comments, he continued: ‘We have no other choice but to close at the end of the month as we have run out of funds.’
He added: ‘The community pub committee has since gone quiet. We have not seen any evidence of any commitment from villagers to put their hard-earned money into schemes that offer little or no investment. There is also no evidence that any government funding was offered for the purchase costs of the business.
“He said he wouldn’t move forward with the process until a decision was made this evening. They all knew that he personally had no desire to be involved in the day-to-day business or management, but that he just wanted Ito to stay open so he could drink occasionally. .
The Checkers Inn pub has seven rooms and a large two bedroom owner’s accommodation
‘Unfortunately pubs cannot survive on people drinking once or twice a week – it needs a steady stream of residents using it regularly for meals and other social activities.’
Speaking after a council meeting earlier this week, one local told MailOnline: ‘This is a travesty. It will destroy the village.
‘I hope they are very happy and make a lot of money. But this will leave the village in a worse position.
‘What message are you sending to other places and villagers?
‘What kind of importance do we put in pubs in today’s community? Nothing at all.
‘I really hope it will be saved as a pub and become a village centre.
‘But it will be home. I’m sure it will be a wonderful home, but it won’t benefit the whole village.’
Hollywood reportedly met Ms Spalding in a pub four years ago, and she has been a landlady for 16 years.
With a varied menu, punters can enjoy anything from a £25 three-course set menu to a £30 rib-eye steak alongside a bijou selection of elevated pub grub.
A beef and fish and chips burger costs £17, while a fishcake costs £18 and a Sunday roast retails for between £18.50 and £19.50.
While the TV personality initially denied the romance when it was first revealed, Mrs Hollywood’s car is now seen in the drive outside a nearby £1million Grade II listed home.
Spalding temporarily moved into a four-bedroom 18th-century farmhouse in April 2020, with the pair growing closer as Britain entered national lockdown amid the pandemic.
The friends later claimed they lived together on a permanent basis in the property, originally bought when Hollywood was dating Summer Monteys-Fullam.
Spalding and Monteys-Fullam had been friends for many years, living close to each other in the Kent countryside.
The couple got married in October 2023, in a Byzantine-style chapel located in the grounds of the most exclusive hotel in Cyprus.
