CAMPAIGNERS have lost their fight to save their community pub.

About 1,000 people in Yarm signed a petition to try and halt plans to convert the empty Layfield Arms on Davenport Road into a Co-op.

But Stockton Borough Council's planning committee heard that, despite occasional, brief re-openings, the pub had been closed many months with no realistic chance of reopening and so decided to agree to the supermarket scheme.

Many of the petitioners and the 110 people who objected by writing letters against the shop plan were also concerned that the Co-op could lead to the closure of a nearby shop owned by the popular Onkar Somal and his family.

The Somals helped stop the anti-social behaviour associated with the Lifestyle Express store on Turton Street before their arrival and people are worried teenage gangs will now congregate at the new Co-op.

However, councillors were told that competition with rival businesses cannot be used as a reason to refuse a planning application.

Resident Alice Kilburn told the meeting about her concerns over increased traffic from a new store.

“We have witnessed at least three minor accidents and countless near misses on this roundabout,” she said.

Rob Hepplewhite, of agents Prism Planning, said a lot of the concerns about traffic, use of the car park and potential for anti-social behaviour had already been addressed and the changes to the building would only be cosmetic and not out-of-keeping.

He said that an ATM which was to be outside the shop and open for 24 hours will now be inside the store and the car park will be closed when the shop closes.

He said: "The pub has suffered troubled times and has been closed on more than one occasion due to poor trading."

Cllr Steve Walmsley, on the planning committee, noted the strong local reaction, adding: “I wonder when we are trying to kick start high streets into life why we are going down this route of supermarkets just outside the centres?”

In the end councillors voted to grant permission to change the use of the building by eight votes to three.

Prism Planning said the new shop may open in May and is expected to trade from 7am to 10pm. It will create six full-time jobs and about 12 part-time vacancies.

The Layfield Arms originally opened in the 1980s as The Harvester and, in its early days, was a favourite for revellers on their way to the Tall Trees Hotel and MacMillans nightclub.