DECISION day has arrived for campaigners fighting to save a York pub from closure.

The Melbourne, in Cemetery Road, York, was put up for sale by owners Enterprise Inns in January and looked set to be turned into a dry cafe by addiction charity Changing Lives.

But locals began a fight to save the pub, and today the city council leader will decide whether to list the pub as an "Asset of Community Value" meaning it could not be sold from under the regular customers.

Council leader Chris Steward is due to decide whether to grant the listing, and council staff have told him there is "significant precedent" for pubs to be listed.

But while the pub fits the first of the ACV criteria that is is a community amenity, it is not clear that it is realistic for it to be commercially viable enough to continue.

On top of that, pub company Enterprise Inns have told the council it has not been able to find a new manager or a buyer for the pub.

Cllr Steward is also to decide whether to list Holgate Allotments as an asset of community value, and officials have supported that application, but an application for the Clementhorpe Maltings building on Lower Darnborough Street is less straightforward.

Clementhorpe Community Association has applied for the ACV listing, with proposals to turn the space into a community building with artists' studios, a micro-brewery and a cafe which would "express the history and cultural significance of the area."

But in the council officers' written report, they say the building has never been used for "the wellbeing or social interests of the community" so would not be eligible.

And with a contract for sale already signed between the council and developers Northminster, an ACV listing would not be able to stop the building being sold without a substantial amount of compensation being owed to the building firm.

Northminster were granted planning permission to convert the Victorian maltings building, which still contains much of the original malting equipment, into six luxury homes.