A FORMER pub and steak house is set to be demolished to make way for a car rental chain.

The former Brew and Brisket Steak House, on Wigginton Road at the junction with Clifton Moor Gate, has previously been pub The Bumper Castle, an Italian restaurant named Italianissimo and the Babursie Castle restaurant.

A planning application has now been submitted to demolish the building to create a branch of Enterprise car hire in its place.

There are also plans for the Enterprise car club - which already offers short term car rentals at bays across the city - to be expanded using the site.

A statement says: "The proposed development seeks to provide a new site for Enterprise Rent a Car for their operation in York to provide additional capacity to meet demand in the city.

"Their current sites are located at Foss Islands and the train station and are relatively constrained and at operational capacity.

"The proposed site will provide a new site for the business to serve demand in the city and surrounding areas in a sustainable location."

A car park will have 43 parking spaces, plus room for vans and car club vehicles.

A heritage report says the site is marked as the Bumper Castle public house as far back as the first edition of the Ordnance Survey plan, published in 1854.

It says the site was likely developed as the Bumper Castle Inn in the mid 19th century and the building "adopts Arts and Crafts-stylistic elements".

But the application says the benefits of the new car rental scheme outweigh the harms of demolishing the vacant pub building.

It says: "The proposed development supports economic growth and employment creation and would bring a vacant site back into active use whilst visually enhancing the area through the delivery of a high quality contemporary building."

View the application at planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications reference 20/01703/FUL.