A HISTORIC Blackrod pub will be replaced with five houses.

Campaigners had worked to try and prevent the Red Lion in Church Street from being pulled down and replaced with houses, but the scheme will now go ahead.

A right to demolish the popular pub had already been granted to the owners of the building and Bolton’s Planning Committee could find no reason not to allow the housing development to replace it.

Ward Councillor Ann Cunliffe expressed her dismay at another community pub being lost in the village.

She said: “Blackrod is rapidly losing its public houses and with them go some of the character of the village, sadly, there is nothing we can do.”