FRESH plans have been submitted to change the use of a well-known roadside pub on the A64 near York into a drive-thru Starbucks with offices.

Teesside-based Dennis Harley Developments has now boosted measures to combat drainage problems, the issue which led City of York Council earlier this year to refuse a scheme for the Four Alls Inn at Stockton-on-Forest.

Planning documents submitted to the council says following talks with the local flooding authority, drainage issues have been resolved and a revised drainage strategy prepared.

Investigations were made into the existing drainage system, leading to drains being unblocked by removing debris and vegetation, and re-establishing a free-flowing system.

The application promises measures including creating an attenuation pond and says the drainage will be managed by a private company.

Elsewhere, the application remains the same as before to redevelop the site to provide coffee shop, office and retail facilities.

It would open from 7am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and from 9am to 11pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Some of the work has already started, so the application is part-retrospective, it said.

The application continued: “The ground floor of the original public house building is to be used as a café with drive thru. A single storey element to the rear of the public house has been demolished and a canopy erected to cover the drive thru collection point. The upper floor is to be used as office space.”

Parking on the site would increase from 23 to 46 spaces and access from the A64 will be improved, as already agreed with National Highways.

The application says the site was used as a pub for about a century but this use was no longer found to be viable so Punch Taverns closed the pub and sold it for redevelopment. No formal offers were made to keep it as a pub, so the city council accepts the site is not viable as a pub.

This was also accepted in a previous planning application, which was approved several years ago and remains in force until July 2023 to demolish the pub and replace it with two houses.

The city council has also accepted the relatively small scale of the proposal will not harm the viability and vitality of the city centre.

Jobs will be created in and the coffee shop “will create an attractive new meeting place for local people as well as a valuable stopping off point for passing motorists.”

The intended operator Starbucks will ensure the ongoing use and maintenance of the building.

The application added: “It is accepted that the best way to conserve a building is to keep it in use, or to find it an appropriate new use which would see to its long-term conservation. An unreasonable, inflexible approach will prevent action that could give a building new life.”