Replacing pub with flats not justified - planners

A developer's attempts to build a housing development without providing a pub and restaurant are not "sufficiently justified", planners have said.

Endurance Estates is building 1,200 homes in north Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Last year, the business submitted an application to "vary conditions", proposing to build retirement flats instead of the pub and eatery.

Planners have advised committee members at East Cambridgeshire District Council should vote against the developer when they meet on Wednesday.

"The proposed amendment to remove the public house [and] restaurant from the scheme and replacement with a nursery and retirement living has not been sufficiently justified," said a planning report put together for the council.

Planners said the developer had been asked to submit more evidence to justify its decision.

The development - for the homes between Cam Drive and the A10 - was granted overall planning permission in 2014.

Parts of the development have been finished and people are living there.

The new planning application hoped to change what was included in the Cam Drive Local Centre, which the developer said was needed, "in order to be able to deliver a viable development".

The developer added the demand for a pub was "very limited" and no company or individual had offered to build one.

One of the shops in the local centre could be a wine bar to make up for the loss of the planned pub, Endurance Estates said.

It also proposed removing the micro library and raising the height of some buildings to as much as three storeys.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the changes could see a reduction in potential jobs created from 250 to 178.

In a statement submitted to the planning committee, City of Ely Council said: "[The council has] serious concerns regarding the reduction in community space, particularly leisure areas."

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