CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after a controversial plans to convert a Southampton pub into flats were thrown out.

Southampton City Council refused plans to turn the former Big Cheese pub in Bitterne Park into 10 three-bed homes.

They said the proposed redevelopment represented an overdevelopment of the site by reason of a residential layout and design that fails to respond to the established pattern of development within the local area.

The Bitterne Brewery Action Group have been campaigning to keep the Big Cheese alive, since its closure last February last year after owners Greene King said that operating the pub was unsustainable.

They claim that the pub is not just used by adults, but also by families and those with physical and mental disabilities and one of the very few pubs in the area that has disabled access. The group put in an application for an asset of community value which was subsequently granted in May and gave the group six months to make an offer to purchase the pub.

However, this did not materialise and the pub was sold for £651,000 to property developers MHH Poole Ltd.

Michelle Baker, who leads the group, said that the fight was not over and they were going to do all they could to purchase the pub.She said: “We are feeling relieved planning was rejected as we are really beginning to move forward with our plan to buy the pub, we have a great vision of how the community would benefit from the use of the building.

“We plan to have the pub owned and run by the community for the community. “We would urge the developers to please be considerate and have some compassion to have our community needs in mind, and allow us to work together to negotiate an agreement to return this valuable asset back to our community.”

Council leader Simon Letts has offered to help the campaigners., the leader of Southampton City Council also joined the campaign to help the group throw out the plans.

He said: “I think we should resist knocking down another pub in the city, and everyone made a really passionate case to keep it running as a pub.

“It gives residents a place to meet and I think we close pubs at our own peril nowadays.”

He added that he was willing to help in any way he can to make sure there is not a closure of another pub in the city and will back them all the way.

The group will now finalise a business plan to secure an attempt to bring the plans forward for potential investment and community share offer.