CONTROVERSIAL plans to redevelop a former York pub are still set to go ahead - even though it is being marketed for sale as a going concern.

The Frog Hall, in Layerthorpe, closed down in January to make way for a video store, with a McDonalds drive-through burger bar planned next door.

City of York Council granted planning permission for the project and regulars who had campaigned to save the pub admitted defeat.

But the project has still not started and hopes flared yesterday that the Frog Hall might be saved after all after it emerged that it was being advertised for sale as a pub by estate agents Christie and Co.

An advert on the agent's website, featuring a picture of the Frog Hall before it was boarded up, describes it as a "detached public house in historic York, 0.5 miles from York city centre."

The ad says the property includes a lounge bar, a public bar and a games room, and also three bedroom accommodation for the owners and invite offers for the freehold.

But a spokesman for Dransfield said it was still under contract to buy the site and the redevelopment scheme was still going ahead.

He said the project had been delayed by complex decontamination issues on the former gasworks site.

The company had been attempting to resolve these to the satisfaction of the Environment Agency for the past six months.

It was now hoped these could be resolved by the end of November - in which case it was hoped the development scheme could start on site by next spring.

A spokesman for Christie and Co said today the pub advert had been left on the website by mistake and would be taken off.

However, if the Dransfield development of the whole site failed to go ahead, there was a strong possibility that the Frog Hall would be sold again in future as a "closed unit."

The Evening Press reported yesterday how another York pub, the Starting Gate in Tadcaster Road, was to close next month to make way for housing.

The Gimcrack in Fulford Road and several working mens' clubs are also set for residential redevelopment after closing recently, and an estate agent warned that developers were looking at the potential of a number of other pubs and hotels across the city.

Updated: 11:47 Thursday, October 31, 2002