CITY leaders have lifted a 57-year-old covenant that said a York pub could not be used for anything else, paving the way for it to be replaced by housing.

The former York Corporation imposed the covenant in 1954, when it sold the site of the Turf Tavern, in Thanet Road.

But the pub’s owners plan to close it in December and a decision notice on the City of York Council website says the authority has now lifted the covenant, in return for the developer meeting “various conditions”. Two affordable family homes are to be included in the new plans.

Paul Gledhill, one of the campaigners who helped save the Turf Tavern from closure last year, said: “We are trying to stay optimistic, but we are pretty despondent at this news.

“It is a family pub where parents can bring their children knowing they are safe. It might be a cliché to say a pub is the hub of a community, but that’s exactly what the Turf Tavern is.”

Gerard Hodgson and Anna Semlyen, Labour councillors for Dringhouses and Woodthorpe, have called for a rethink on the closure.

Coun Hodgson said: “I am saddened and disappointed, especially as the residents’ feelings were so strongly in favour of keeping it open when it was last threatened.

“It is a very important community resource which will be very hard to replace. Myself and Coun Semlyen will be strongly supportive of any campaign to keep it open.”

Ann Reid, the ward’s Liberal Democrat councillor, voiced concern over the way the covenant was lifted. She said: “Given the depth of feeling on this issue, I find it strange that officers have made this decision without any consultation in the community and that it has been hidden away.”

The document detailing the decision said officers had considered not lifting the covenant, but this would mean the site could only be developed as a pub and, if this was “not economically viable”, it would “result in an abandoned or derelict site which may lead to anti-social problems for the future”.