Moves to reopen a much-missed country pub in Binfield are progressing, plans submitted to Bracknell Forest Council suggest.

The Jack O’Newbury on Terrace Road North closed in February 2020 – just weeks before the start of the first Covid-19 lockdown and never reopened. But now its owner appears to have revived plans to refurbish it as a gastropub.

Boddingtons Planning consultant has submitted a planning application for permission to change the parking layout at the pub to make it more attractive to future customers. It says it wants parking to be to the side to increase ‘kerb appeal’.

In a planning statement, Boddingtons Planning says the owner wants to offer ‘a high quality facility that enables all potential users to enjoy the premises, whether it be a casual drink on a walk to a full a la carte menu'.

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The statement also says the pub could act as a wedding venue and offer accommodation. And it says the owner has brought in experienced restaurateur Carlos Maidana – who runs Blues Smokehouse in Bracknell – to oversee its refurbishment.

Plans to refurbish the pub were originally submitted in 2019, before the pub’s closure. The first sign that the had been revived came after a new version of the plans were submitted to Bracknell Forest Council in July 2022 and approved in April last year.

Work already appears to be underway. Heating company New Heat Solutions posted to its Facebook page earlier this month that it is working on the ‘exciting new project’ at the Jack O’Newbury.