An ‘urgent meeting’ to save the last pub in a High Wycombe neighbourhood has been demanded by the area’s new Labour MP.

Emma Reynolds, who ousted Steve Baker in the July 4 election, has asked Buckinghamshire Council to help resurrect the Derehams Inn on Derehams Lane in Loudwater after an attempt to demolish the derelict boozer and build seven flats in its place.

Speaking after a meeting with campaigners to save the pub, Reynolds said: “Pubs are the lifeblood of local communities. I am supporting the Derehams Inn community group in their attempt to save this historic, thriving and popular pub.

“I have requested an urgent meeting with the council to discuss the future of the pub, including the Asset of Community Value (ACV) that is currently placed on the pub.

“It is fantastic to see the local community come together and fight to save this vital community asset.”

The MP met with members of The Derehams Inn community group, a group of local residents trying to buy the historic and once thriving pub, which is understood to have raised around £100,000 so far.

During the meeting, Mick Parsons and Richard Smith, leading members of the campaign group, discussed the strength of local feeling about the pub.

In a joint statement, the pair said: “We are very pleased to have our local MP onboard with our campaign to save Derehams Inn pub.

“This is a vital campaign to save the pub and bring back to life a vital community asset that served local people so well and brought people together. It was a hugely successful and thriving pub under the previous landlords.”

Plans to knock down the Derehams Inn and replace it with apartments were rejected by council planners in August last year after around 200 objections were raised by residents         .

Planning officers said the plans put forward by London-based developer Derco Properties would ‘result in the unacceptable loss of a community facility’.

They also mentioned the council’s designation of the pub as ACV, a status used both to recognise a community asset’s importance to local people and to give residents some very limited control over its future.

One of the limited powers ACV status brings is that it triggers a moratorium when an owner wants to sell an asset, which delays the date they can dispose of it by six months.

The delay aims to buy time for community groups wanting to bid for the asset, so that they can raise the necessary funds and develop a business plan.

Derco bought the Derehams Inn from former owner Graham Sturgess in 2021, who had run the business with his wife Maggie since 1998. The husband-and-wife team have both since passed away.