THE future of a former York pub remains in doubt after social club members voted overwhelmingly against plans to move in.

About 120 of the 600-strong membership of Burton Lane Working Men’s Club turned out for a meeting on Friday night where all but two voted against a plan to move in to the former Corner House pub in nearby Burton Stone Lane.

They instead opted to stay at their current home in Bootham Crescent.

As The Press reported last week, supermarket giant Tesco has pulled out of a plan to open an Express store there.

Previously Tesco wanted to convert the old pub, which is owned by Marston’s Brewery, but a spokesman for the supermarket said that plan has now been scrapped.

Club president John Simpson said: “In the end it was going to cost too much money to put the Corner House right and that’s the main reason we are stopping.

“Instead of moving we will get on and spend a bit of money on the current building.

“It needs new windows, a new roof and we will redecorate.

“We intend to try and make a real go of it, even though the football club will be leaving shortly from across the road. We are going to have a good go and make it work.”

The Press launched its Be Vocal For Your Local campaign in November.

It called on both City of York Council and the Government to make changes at their respective levels to give people a say on pubs in their area after three city pubs – The Punch Bowl, The Saddle Inn and The Corner House – were threatened with being converted into supermarkets.

Campaigners also wanted there to be a change in the law, so pubs cannot be converted without planning permission and community consultation.

National planning law currently means that pubs are allowed to be converted into a wide range of businesses, or demolished, without planning permission or community consultation.