Even though planning permission to alter the building was granted last year, permission was still required to operate the building as licensed premises before it could open as a pub. That permission has now been granted. Councillors on the Licensing Committee made their decision in private following a hearing earlier this month. Wetherspoons have promised that participants in the Otley run will not be allowed access to the building. How this will be achieved is not clear. The councillors responsible for this decision to allow another drinking venue in Headingley, possibly the largest, were the Licensing Sub-Committee chairman Paul Wray, Abigail Marshall-Katung and Angela Wenham. You can read more about the decision in this Yorkshire Evening Post article. Headingley councillor Neil Walshaw failed to object to the application, owing, he said, to his having had norovirus.