FURIOUS campaigners stormed out of a council meeting after plans to demolish a York pub and build a care home in its place were approved.

Regulars at the Carlton Tavern in Acomb appealed to City of York Council to refuse the recommendation, claiming the pub was too valuable as a community hub.

But councillors last night decided a new 74-bedroom care home should be built on the Acomb Road site, saying the number of people who would require specialist care in old age or for dementia was due to increase significantly in coming years, and York needed to plan for that rise.

More than 140 people registered objections to the plans with the council, with about a dozen people storming out of the meeting as the decision was announced - following two tied votes, and with Cllr Nigel Ayre casting the decisive vote - amid cries of “shame on you” and “it’s a disgrace” directed at the planning committee.

Louise Ennis represented locals at the meeting, and said: “It was just a disgrace. Clearly there’s a need for care homes, but we already have in Acomb, within a quarter of a mile of the site, considerable elderly facilities.

“You can’t even say they’re providing a service for the community, because it’s five-star - how many people in Acomb can afford five-star accommodation?”

Dr Duncan Marks, of the York Civic Trust, said: “While this may be a good result for York, it’s a very poor one for Acomb and the local community. The Acomb area has very few heritage assets - listed and non-listed - in comparison to the city centre, and I’m quite sure that if the Carlton Tavern was within the city walls, it would be listed already.”

Audrey Glover, 77, who lives close to the pub, said: “We use the pub a lot, now there will be nowhere else for us to go locally. It’s disgusting. Looking at the vote it could have so easily gone the other way.

“Why couldn’t they build around it instead of knocking it down? There’s a care home close by on the corner, that’s just stood empty – why close it to build a private one down the road? Local people could have afforded to live in the council care home that has now closed, but we won’t be able to afford to live in the new private one.”

Councillor Fiona Derbyshire was one of the committee members who voted to retain the pub, and said she felt the discussion was not balanced or completely informed.

She said: “I think the Acomb community is going to bear the brunt of the overriding need of the city and is just going to have to take it, unfortunately.”