PLANNING chiefs have signalled the demise of an historic Southam pub which will now make way for flats.
The Bull Inn last closed its doors some 18 months ago and with the pub unable to find a new buyer, the grade II-listed building has laid empty ever since.
Developers Oscar Homes Ltd were looking to convert the building on Bull Street into six flats and had applied for a change of use.
They were also hoping to create an extension at the back of the pub along with nine parking spaces.
And members of Stratford District Council’s planning committee followed officers’ advice – giving the plans the go-ahead subject to a number of conditions.
These include agreeing to retain some of the pub’s more historic features and only having a left turn exit from the car park.
The pub was previously owned by Punch Taverns but high rent prices were said to have driven out its last landlords, Jeff and Joyce Doherty, whose Paratrooper son JJ was killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008.
