A DEVELOPER has submitted plans to replace Ben Rhydding's only public house with a housing complex.

The Wheatley Hotel closed last summer and since then rumours have been rife that it was being lined up for a lucrative sale to property developers.

Owner Punch Taverns has consistently denied that this was the case, but it now looks as if the worst fears of residents will be realised.

This week Ilkley planning office confirmed that it had just received an application to build housing on the site.

Although details will not be made public until next week, it is believed the plans, from Pool-in-Wharfedale firm Antler Homes, will seek permission to construct at least nine terraced town houses, nine flats, and to convert the hotel itself into a residential block.

The news comes just days after 200 people gathered outside the hotel for a barbecue protest organised by campaign group Save Us Pub (SUP).

SUP member and Chestnut Close resident Ian Anderson said: "We had been waiting for this application to appear so we would know exactly what we were up against and what we could object to.

"The general consensus of feeling in Ben Rhydding is that it would be madness to close the pub. With the Wheatley now being inside a new conservation area I think we have a good chance, certainly better than 50/50, of making the developers compromise, even if we can't stop the entire plan.

"We wouldn't object to some of the car park being made into housing, but we will not accept the whole site being developed and the pub being done away with.

"I'm sure there is a compromise available. On the basis of the groundswell of opinion which exists about this, including support from local councillors and the MP, we have a fairly substantial quorum against these proposals."

SUP insists the Wheatley was not just a good local but a hub at the heart of the community, used by social and sports groups who have been effectively homeless (and separated from their trophies) since it shut.

Steering group member and Wheatley Lane resident Sandy MacPherson, who spotted building surveyors measuring the site back in February, hopes to call a public meeting next week to discuss how to fight the proposals.

He said: "Let battle commence! We need to start drawing up detailed ideas for objections and we can make a good case about things like loss of local amenity, over development and the impact on traffic.

"At the moment we have hundreds of people having to drive to pubs in Ilkley or Askwith because there's no local pub, and that obviously increases the risks of drink driving.

"Punch Taverns have obviously been planning this for some time and I think our first aim must be to get it knocked back at Keighley Planning Panel.

"Then we can say 'come back with something sensible which keeps the pub open', and we can be in a win-win situation."

A Punch Pub Company spokesman said: "The pub has been closed for several months and in that time we have actively tried to recruit a licensee to take on the lease.

"We have also carried out a complete review of the trading performance and viability of the site. As a result of the review and also the lack of suitable candidates coming forward we decided to look at other options available to us.

"We can confirm that Punch has been in discussion with developers who wish to buy the site. The developers have submitted an outline planning application detailing their proposals to the area planning council for consideration."

Antler Homes said no-one was available to comment on the plans at the time of going to press.

Bradford Environment chief and district councillor Anne Hawkesworth, who is also an Ilkley Parish Councillor for Ben Rhydding, has, along with Ilkley MP Ann Cryer, been supporting SUP's efforts.

She said: "They still have to get the planning application through for change of use before they can get rid of the pub. That will be the crunch issue because if that happens then obviously it will be developed.

"I think there is going to be one heck of a battle to try to save it, but it will not be easy. As a ward councillor I understand people's strong feelings about this and their wish to keep the pub.

"We need to look at what has happened in comparable situations around the country and see if that can help us. We've just got to go for it."

Chairman of the parish council's plans committee Councillor Audrey Brand will play a key role in scrutinising, and commenting on, the proposals before they are sent on to Bradford Council.

She said: "We know local residents have been anxious about the pub being sold off because they came and explained their concerns to us. They have nowhere else to meet at the moment, so we had every sympathy with their case.

"But Government policies are all for using previously used, or brownfield sites, for housing and the Wheatley does fall into that category.

"It would be nice to think somebody else could come along and say 'we'll make a go of it'.

"But when you get a planning application you have to look at it purely from a planning point of view. All I can say is that we will have a good look at the proposals when they come to us."

SUP intends to hold another protest at the pub on the anniversary of its closure, at the end of June. To find out more about the campaign readers can visit www.saveuspub.org.uk.