A PUB could be turned into flats and houses if plans are given the greenlight.

The Royal, in Main Road, Dovercourt, has sent a planning application to Tendring Council to turn the pub into eight flats and three houses.

If approved the development would include one three-bedroom house, four two-bedroom flats, and four one-bedroom flats with 16 car parking spaces and 14 cycling parking spaces.

The application is seeking full planning permission for the part-demolition and extension of the former public house to enable its residential conversion to homes.

The Heritage Assessment, on Tendring Council's planning portal, stated the pub is a non-designated heritage asset of "low heritage significance".

It said: "This small level of heritage significance is principally embodied in the principal north façade of the building.

"Other elements of the external fabric, and elements of the interior and setting have been shown to make a lesser contribution to the overall significance of the building.

"The revised proposals will ensure the retention, repair, and conversion of the earliest extant fabric of The Royal.

"It is anticipated that, at the very most, the proposals have the potential to cause a very small amount of harm to the heritage significance of the non-designated heritage asset."

The application comes soon after owners of The Hanover Inn, in Harwich, sent plans to Tendring Council to turn their award-winning pub into homes.

But the historic pub has now been registered as an asset of community value despite the owners fearing the business could fold imminently due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Tendring branch of the Campaign for Real Ale put forward an application in the hopes of giving a group the option to buy the pub, which is in Church Street.

The Anchor Inn, in Mistley, also lodged an application this year to turn the village's only pub into homes.

But Tendring Council’s cabinet has approved Mistley Parish Council’s application for The Anchor Inn to be added to the authority’s list of assets of community value.

Assets of community value have a mandatory moratorium on being sold by their owners, of up to six months, to allow community groups time to build up a

bid to buy the properties.

Tendring Council has the final say on the plans.