A VACANT former Chester pub site is currently 'under offer' after plans to convert it into a sports and social club were scrapped.

The old Dee Miller pub in Kingsway, which has been empty since February 2018, was put back on the market earlier this year inviting offers in the region of £295,000.

The University of Chester had submitted a proposal to turn the site, which includes a shop and three-bedroom house, into a sports and social club with a rehearsal studio.

However, in July last year Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee unanimously voted to defer the plans after residents raised concerns that they would be excluded from their own community venue.

The site is listed as an asset of community value and in 1958 the Chester Corporation agreed in a covenant that it must be used ‘for the benefit’ of residents on the Kingsway estate.

At the start of the year, the university confirmed to the local authority it was longer pursuing the purchase of the pub site and as a result was withdrawing its application.

Owners Ei Group, formerly Enterprise Inns, put the site back on the market and it is currently under offer.

In the past the majority of interested parties have been looking at alternative uses of the site, such as retail and residential developments.

According to commercial estate agents Legat Owen, at the time of the university proposal there had been no formal interest in purchasing the site and continuing to operate it as a pub.