PLANS to knock down a pub and build new homes on the site have been lodged for the third time - after two previous schemes were withdrawn.

Developers have submitted proposals to demolish The Magnet in Osbaldwick Lane and built eight new homes on the land. The pub is currently vacant.

Previous plans submitted in 2019 were withdrawn because the developer could not show that enough had been done to find a new landlord for the pub to justify knocking it down.

But a fresh application by Moorside says: "At the time of the sale of the hotel on the open market, no or no significant interest was shown by either any intending publican or a brewery.

"The reality is that the day of the corner beer pub is no longer. So essentially the professionals have ascertained this site has no future as a public house."

The plans would see two terraces of three-storey houses built on the site. Five would be two bedroom homes, three would have three bedrooms.

Each would have a front and rear garden and at least one parking space.

The developers say the homes will be marketed to first time buyers and young families, as they will be close to Osbaldwick Primary School.

The planning application says: "The existing building is unable to operate as a community facility without a substantial financial investment.

"The original operator sold the premises due to the declining trade and increasingly difficult trading conditions.

"In the current climate where all public houses are closed, it is unlikely that new operator will be found in the future."

But the building dates back to the 1930s and York Archaeological Trust say: "The Magnet public house is not a scheduled listed building, though it is considered by CAMRA to be the best example in York of an inter-war ‘improved’ pub, and it is listed as a heritage asset in the York Historic Characterisation Project.

"John Oxley, the City of York Archaeologist, has stated that this building should be considered a non-designated heritage asset of local significance."

Visit planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications reference 21/00304/FUL for more.