Plans to turn an empty canalside pub into a coffee drive thru unit have been pulled, weeks after planning permission was granted for the same building to be turned into flats.

Gentian Leamington Spa Ltd had put forward a fresh scheme to convert the former Waterside pub into a takeaway coffee shop, and mothball the existing first floor apartment.

The application was the latest in a long-running saga to repurpose the building which has been closed for a number of years.

However, a separate application to split the first floor into two apartments, and convert the ground floor into six flats has recently been approved by Warwick District Council.

And the application for the drive thru has been withdrawn from consideration, before the local authority could make a decision.

A previous application to flatten the Waterside Inn and replace it with a 40-bed apartment building had previously be withdrawn also.

An artist's impression of how the coffee shop would have looked (image via planning application)

The Queensway inn had also been put on the market with local agent Bromwich Hardy, with a guide price of £2,750,000 following the "universally negative" response to try and secure a new operator to reopen the business.

But the latest bid to repurpose the site - which was backed by Leamington Spa Town Council - has now been signed off by Warwick District Council.

Plans show there will be a mix of studio and two-bedroom flats.

Signing off on the scheme a district council report said: "Subject to conditions and notes, the proposal will preserve the character of the conservation area and character of the area and is not considered to result in harm to residential amenity, highways safety and parking, flood risk, ecology/biodiversity or climate change and adaptation.

"When considering the benefits associated with the proposal the development is considered to represent a sustainable form of development and it is recommended that planning permission be granted."

(Header image by Robin Stott via geograph.org.uk)