A CONTROVERSIAL planning application on the site of a former pub is set to go ahead despite opposition from local residents.

The proposal for the Layfield Arms, in Davenport Road, Yarm, will see flats and housing added to the site.

Permission has already been given to change part of the pub into a shop, which also met local opposition, and now the applicants can build four semi-detached homes on the old car park and convert another part of the former pub into five flats.

Concerned residents had raised a number of issues about the proposal, ranging from overdevelopment to increase in traffic and the visual impact of the plans to noise during building.

However, Stockton Borough Council's planning officers recommended the scheme for approval along with a number of recommendations.

Rod Hepplewhite, representing the applicant, told members of the council's planning committee, that his client had taken note of the concerns and reduced the number of houses from six to four in an attempt to alleviate residents' concerns.

Cllr David Rose, who represents the Parkfield and Oxbridge Ward, did raise concerns about the extra traffic but was reassured by officers that the number of houses would not generate a significant increase in traffic that it would cause a problem for residents.

Cllr Lynn Hall also questioned the number of properties proposed for the scheme as well as highlighting her safety concerns.

The Hartburn ward councillor said: "The hidden entrances to the flats, worries me, as they are not overlooked and as we know shops often attract anti-social behaviour and I'm concerned about that."

Prior to the meeting residents had said they miss having a pub on the Layfield estate and would have liked to have seen the facility turned back into a family pub. It is currently vacant.

In the 1980s it was a Harvester pub, and before it closed it offered food and a Sunday carvery.

One of the conditions, Stockton Council is hoping to impose is that work on the homes would not start until the pub has been converted into a small supermarket, believed to be a Co-op.

The redevelopment would create three flats on the ground floor and two on the third floor, with four, three-bedroom homes, seven car parking spaces for the flats and two visitor spaces.

The application was approved by nine votes to four.