A PUB in West Malvern has been named an asset of community value, giving local people first refusal if it should ever be put up for sale.

The Brewers Arms, at Lower Dingle, is the last pub in the village, and regulars were concerned about its future as they knew landlady Sue Adamson is planning to retire in September.

So they applied to Malvern Hills District Council to have the pub listed as an asset of community value - and this week heard that their request had been approved.

Under the Asset of Community Value scheme, which was enacted in the recent Localism Act, the owners of the building are obliged, if they put it up for sale, to allow a six-month waiting period to give community groups time to prepare their own bids.

Gerry Tudge, who lives in the village and is a regular visitor to the Brewers, said: "We are delighted that the district council have awarded the building community asset status.

"With the closure of the Lamb Inn and the granting of planing permissions to convert it into housing, the Brewers is the last pub in the village and we though it must be protected.

"Our landlady, Sue Adamson, is retiring in September, and we really wanted something to fall back on if there seemed to be any danger of the pub being closed or converted. It occupies a special place in the community of West Malvern."

This week, Ashleigh Fowler of Admiral Taverns, which owns the pub, said: "Generally speaking, when the tenant of one of our pubs retires, our policy is to recruit a new licensee who is suitable to run the premises."

She said the company had no real comment to make on the pub's new-found status.

Mrs Adamson confirmed that she was planning to retire and leave the pub in September. She said: "I've not been involved in the community asset application, which has been led by people who are part of the community in West Malvern."

Mrs Adamson and her partner Trevor Marston took over the pub over ten years ago and quickly became a popular part of the village scene. Mr Marston died suddenly on New Year's Day 2010, mourned by large sections of the community.

In 1992, the Brewers was badly damaged by fire, and top violinist Nigel Kennedy, then a village resident and pub regular, played a packed concert in the village church to raise money for the restoration.

The brewers is not the first pub in the district to be awarded this status. In January the Old Bush at Callow End was declared an asset of community value following a campaign by residents.