THREE new homes are to be built on the site of a former restaurant and pub in Ryedale.

The Blacksmith’s Arms in Main Street, Aislaby, near Pickering, closed seven years ago and the site was subsequently bought by Philip Lee, of the Cropton Brewery, with a planning application being submitted to Ryedale District Council to convert the buildings into two four-bedroom houses and a three-bedroom property.

The proposals have now been approved after agents acting for the applicant said the site would “continue to decline” unless a new use was found for it, adding that the work on the new homes would be a “high-quality restoration”.

They also said the property had been marketed after a previous scheme, including a flat, a three-bedroom home and a four-bedroom house, was granted permission in 2010, but there had been little interest and the proposals had needed to be changed to make turning the site into housing “economically viable”.