Plan to turn Middleton St George pub into a Sainsbury's take step closer

A proposal to convert the former Platform 1, and before that Fighting Cocks, pub in Middleton St George into a Sainsbury’s Local was approved in June last year.

The retailer was given permission to bulldoze part of one of the world’s oldest railway inns to create the store for people to top up their weekly shops.

Read more: Fury as Darlington Railway pub WILL be converted into Sainsbury's store

And Darlington council has now approved plans for relevant signage at the new store as well as plans for a cash machine.

The store will be open 7am-11pm every day and provide around 11 car parking spaces.

However, Middleton St George parish council requested for all signage to be switched off when the store is closed.

How the new store could look, according to plans submitted to Darlington council

The conversion has not gone ahead without controversy, however. The approval decision at aplanning committee meeting last Summer was followed by cries of “outrageous” and “disgrace” by numerous residents who had attempted to persuade councillors that the building on the trackbed of the Stockton and Darlington Railway could be resurrected as a community-owned pub and hub.

Residents said there was very little support for another convenience store in the village, but many more were in favour of the building, which was last year registered as an asset of community value, continuing its 190-year history as a pub.

Campaigners told advanced plans in place to take on the building and highlighted that the pub had only ceased operating after its owners decided not to renew a tenancy.

How the store could look, according to plans submitted to Darlington council

They added that the community venture could have the pub running within six months, but Conservative councillors raised doubts over their claims and the amount of support there was for it, saying the building could end up becoming a derelict eyesore.

But Sainsbury’s refuted the emphasis on the building’s heritage at the time. A spokesman  claimed the council’s conservation officer had “exaggerated” the heritage value of the building, as part of an effort to back the community pub proposal.

See the the current construction work taking place on the building below. All pictures: SARAH CALDECOTT

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