DELIGHTED residents raised a toast to councillors after they rejected a controversial planning application to change a Bledlow Ridge restaurant into a house.

Wycombe District Council's planning committee unanimously decided to throw out the proposal to turn the Darusso restaurant, formerly The Boot pub, into a four-bedroom home.

The plan was originally deferred by councillors in January over a “planning anomaly”.

But committee members ruled that the Chinnor Road eatery would have been used more if it was a pub and “should be protected from development”.

The decision was greeted with a huge round of applause and loud cheers from around 80 campaigners who packed into WDC's Council Chamber for Wednesday's meeting.

Residents have been fighting for the facility to be changed back into a public drinking place after the building's owner Pasqual Russo changed it into a restaurant four years ago.

Cllr Nigel Cox, local ward member, said: “We're not pleased with the decision, we are absolutely ecstatic. Over the moon.

“I think the sheer amount of people here shows what this means to the village and I would like to congratulate everyone who has worked so hard on this result because we have won this by the skin of our teeth.

“But it is far to early to discuss the next step, the campaign group has looked at how a number of successful community pubs are run but until a deal is in place to buy the building, there's not much to say.”

The campaign group was launched earlier this year to 'gather evidence' to present and prove to the planning committee that the pub was well used before its transformation.

The change of use from pub to restaurant did not require planning approval but a transformation does. A pub can be protected as a ‘community facility’ but a restaurant “is more difficult to protect” under planning rules.

The committee had to “pass two tests” to reject the proposal - justify the facility was 'of community value' and prove there is a 'tangible case the facility was likely to be used by the community in the future'.

But councillors decided the “planning anomaly should be tested”, after it was revealed at the meeting that the owner “has two offers on the table” to sell.

Including one private bidder and the village campaign group - who want to change the restaurant into a “community pub”.

Cllr Neil Marshall said a further deferral of the case would “keep the door open for development” and proposed rejection to “give a community pub a chance”.

He said: “We've heard there are two offers on the table to the owner, we can see the community are trying to make it work and we know community pubs can work, so we need to refuse this application to give it a chance.”

Cllr Hugh McCarthy added that the facility was used when it was a pub and compared the current use of the building to “like having a village hall which had not been opened”.

Cllr Jean Teesdale said residents had been “persuaded not to go there” before adding: “We should give the community their chance and do the right thing by rejecting this proposal.”