Last updated at 12:23, Friday, 31 August 2012

A Maryport pub which used to be home to Eastern European immigrants could be converted into a flat.

Plans have been lodged with Allerdale council to convert the former Station Inn on Ellenborough Place into a two-bedroom maisonette.

The pub, which was run by Joe and Denise Laverty, has been closed since January 2011.

Since then it has been a target of vandalism and a number of break-ins, with the windows now being boarded up.

The pub, near the former Cumbria Seafoods factory on the Solway estate, used to be a regular watering hole for employees who included a large number of Eastern Europeans.

Mr and Mrs Laverty welcomed the foreign drinkers and ensured that they had Polish and Slovakian beers on sale.

Their relationship with the Eastern European workers started when six of them lodged at the pub.

When the seafood factory transferred to Seaham in the North East, the pub lost much of its customer base.

Charles and Audrey Cunningham, of Winscales, Workington, have lodged plans to convert it into a two-bedroom maisonette, with the rear yard being split in two to provide a drying and storage area.

They also propose to alter five windows and the door so that they match the character of the building.

They said: “The property was in a bad state of repair and has got worse, with it being an out of town public house and there being a social club just down the road, it wouldn’t have an impact by not reopening.”

Mr and Mrs Cunningham said that the outside of the building will be improved.

They said: “When this work is done and the exterior painted it will improve the appearance, especially for a main road property entering into the town.”

First published at 11:54, Friday, 31 August 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk