Plans to turn declining Sheffield pub into food shop have been submitted in bid to avoid anti-social behaviour

Jacob Russell submitted plans to changed up The Phoenix, on Greengate Lane, High Green, to Sheffield Council and Heron Foods has indicated they are interested in taking up the site.

The tenancy on the building runs out in 2020 and tenants, E.D Leisure say they want to prevent it becoming a ‘magnet for for anti-social behaviour, to the detriment of the local community and residential environment’.

Council officers who wrote a report for planning committee members said losing the pub was justified because trade had been in decline, at a rate of six times the national average, and was therefore ‘no longer viable’.

They added the new shop would create local jobs, contribute to improvements to the night time environment and ensure local facilities and services are able to develop.

The pub currently employs three part-time staff and the proposals would see the creation of two full time jobs and nine part-time roles.

A total of 19 written representations have been submitted concerning the plans, 16 of which were objections.

A sub-tenant of the pub said it had been their ‘home and job’ for the last 16 years and that they had increased sales in other areas such as spirits.

Others said the area had lost a number of pubs in recent years and local residents needed the site.

Council officers have recommended that the plans are approved.

It will be discussed at a meeting on December 17