Protests fail to save pub

Republic Inns has been given outline planning permission to bulldoze the Askern Hotel on Doncaster Road, Askern, despite a 171-name petition against the scheme.

They want to build five houses and a block of nine flats on the site.

But Doncaster Council officials stressed to the borough’s planning committee that the developers would still have to agree the details of how the buildings will look before work could start.

Coun Ros Jones had made an appeal at the meeting for the plans to be rejected.

She said: “The number of people who have signed the petition shows the strength of feeling. Residents want the status quo.

“The residents would rather see houses than flats on that site because they have suffered a lot of anti-social behaviour because of flats near to this site, where police have been called out at weekends because of loud music. But they are also concerned about the traffic because that area is near a notorious junction, and parking there will increase the problem.”

Highways planning officer Graham Hargreaves said there was no reason why there should be a highways problem.

He said there were no records of accidents causing injury there.

The developers have already agreed to reduce the height some of the buildings from the initially planned four floors to three storeys.