A DEVELOPER, whose plan to demolish one Farnham pub to make way for flats has just been thrown out, is hoping to do the same at another.

Camberley-based Dolphin Head Group Holdings, which has just lost a planning appeal to knock down the now-closed Cricketers pub in Upper Hale and build 12 flats, has submitted a planning application to demolish the Bricklayers Arms in Weydon Lane, replacing the pub with 10 two-bedroom flats.

The developer, which owns the pub, claims it is not viable.

Landlady Gene Higgins supported this view when The Herald contacted her.

In a letter accompanying the planning application, Dolphin Head's Cheryl Booth writes: "(The pub) has suffered significantly in recent years from changing trends in drinking habits whereby people visit public houses less frequently, and also by the younger clientele preferring to visit the circuit pubs in town.

"Despite every effort at promotion and attempts to increase pub trade, this is not possible where there are 20 alternative pubs and restaurants within 1.2 miles."

The letter also states that the pub meets none of the developer's own criteria of "special attractions" such as a picturesque or riverside location.

It adds that the pub is in a "generally poor urban landscape and is essentially a road house and not a character pub".

Dolphin Head's planning application, which proposes 15 parking spaces for the 10 flats, will be decided by Waverley Council's western area development control sub-committee on an as yet unspecified date.

The same developer has just lost a planning appeal to demolish the former Cricketers pub in Upper Hale and replace it with 12 flats.

The company exercised its automatic right to appeal after Waverley failed to decide the planning application within the statutory period.

But a planning inspector has dismissed the appeal.

The inspector was not satisfied by Dolphin Head's argument that the pub was not viable.

His written conclusion reads: "I consider the harm to the provision of social/leisure facilities and to the character and appearance of the area compelling reasons to dismiss the appeal."