THE fate of Greatham's two pubs still hangs in the balance this week after East Hampshire District Council planners delayed a decision on their future.

The Silver Birch Inn and The Queens face a battle to survive as planners examine two applications from different developers to build homes on both pub sites.

It is proposed that the Silver Birch be demolished to make way for 16 houses in an application from Pitch Ltd.

In a deal with developers, if the plan was given the go-ahead a legal agreement would be put in place linking the application to another submitted by Greene King Plc for The Queens.

This plan is to build two detached houses next to The Queens which would then be refurbished and reopened.

Both sites are located within the area of special landscape quality and face towards the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The applications have provoked strong reaction in the village which is desperate to keep one pub.

EHDC has been sent 77 letters relating to both applications, 60 of which objected to either or both the applications, which meant that members of the public were able to speak at last Thursday's meeting of the south planning committee.

The committee heard that while 93 per cent of Greatham residents wanted a village pub, just over half actually used the existing facilities.

And although three quarters of villagers did not feel Greatham needed two pubs, many felt that whichever pub remained open needed a restaurant to provide more employment, along with suitable car parking spaces to cater for it.

"To do food, as so many pubs do today, they will need more car parking spaces," said Kenneth Graham (Horndean).

Sam James (Bramshott and Liphook) raised some concern over the plans for The Queens and pointed out that because some of the proposed car parking spaces would be opposite the pub, it would be difficult to ensure only pub patrons used them.

Judy Onslow (The Hangers), who is also a Greatham parish councillor, voiced "great concern" over housing development at the Silver Birch site, citing the design of the houses as "poor" and the height "too dominant".

She said that if The Queens, which is currently closed, became the only pub in the village, then the very limited parking may be a problem.

The meeting heard that the planners would prefer The Queens to be refurbished and reopened than a refurbishment of the Silver Birch Inn as it would cost only £175,000 - a lot less than the £375,000 it would cost to do the same work to the Silver Birch.

In addition The Queens' running costs were less, it was in the heart of Greatham and the capital generated from the houses at the Silver Birch site would be high, the meeting heard.

But council leader Elizabeth Cartwright (Liss) argued that the sum of £175,000 was "not enough" and that it would more likely cost £3 million for the developments.

Councillors also heard that if the proposed developments took place, The Queens would be given a year to prove its viability before it was faced with the threat of closure, and Mrs Onslow argued that this was "totally unacceptable".

Richard Hope (Bramshott and Liphook) agreed and said three years was "much more sensible" and called for an independent group such as CAMRA to give evidence on the viability of the scheme.

Councillors agreed that they needed to make a visit to the two sites before any decision on the two applications could be made.

A decision has now been deferred until the next south planning meeting in July.