PLANS to build nine homes on the site of a former pub in Yarm have met with opposition from residents.

Stockton Borough Council looks set to approve the plans for the Layfield Arms, on Davenport Road, Yarm, when its planning committee meets next week, despite more than 30 objections.

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

But Yarm town councillor Sandra McLeavy, who has lived on the Layfield estate for 38 years, said: "We don't need these houses, we need a pub.

"The estate lost its focal point when the pub closed.

"I can't understand why they are still saying there is a shortage of houses in the Stockton area when we have got 1,000 houses going up around Yarm.

"This town is already a bottleneck and it is only going to get worse. What we need is a leisure centre, a pub, or a meeting point, not more homes."

Local resident Peter Horner expressed concerns about the homes, and in particular the Layfield roundabout, which he said was already an accident blackspot.

He said residents living on the estate were already subject to construction noise and traffic from the nearby 350-home Morley Carr Farm development, and more building would only compound the issue.

Residents have 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.