Delighted campaigners are celebrating after a 300-year-old south Bucks pub, which was set to close at the end of the month, will stay open after developers pulled out.

The Red Lion in Knotty Green, near Beaconsfield, was due to close on January 27, leaving the 800-strong community without a local.

Landlady Liz Scowen told the Bucks Free Press she and her husband had been informed by the company that the developers had called time on the deal.

She said: “It is very good for the community because they worked very hard to get to this point.

“Punch Taverns have asked us to continue to run the pub and I think we're going to say yes.”

Punch Taverns, which owns the pub, said they were not planning to close the pub at the end of the month as originally planned.

Nico Wilson, committee member of the Red Lion Supporters Group, who launched a campaign to save the historic pub, welcomed the news, adding: “A pub is the centre of any community. It is a place for the locals to meet, eat, greet and drink. 

“It is the only place that residents of Knotty Green can walk to for a meal and/or a drink. Keeping our historic pub open will allow this to continue.

“We have achieved our first two objectives which were to avoid the pub closing until the situation is properly assessed and to avoid the site being redeveloped as a private dwelling. 

“The news that the developer has pulled out, together with the decision by Punch Taverns to suspend closure, has come as a surprise, albeit a very welcome one, and we are now considering our next steps.”

A Punch Taverns spokesman said: “The Red Lion currently remains open for trade as we explore different options around its future.

“We are keeping our tenants up to date on developments.”