A PUB made famous by one of Bradford’s most acclaimed writers will be demolished and replaced with housing after new plans were approved.

The Beacon Hotel in Buttershaw came to national attention thanks to the work of local playwright Andrea Dunbar.

A key scene in her classic comedy Rita, Sue and Bob Too, set in Buttershaw and the wider Bradford area, took place at the once popular watering hole.

Earlier this year plans to demolish the building, which has been empty for over three years, and build 14 houses in its place were submitted to Bradford Council.

The application, by Burley in Wharfedale based Crag Developments, has now been approved by planning officers - a decision that signals the end of the landmark pub.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too, and the 1987 movie based on the play, were praised for shining a light on a section of British society usually ignored by the theatre.

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It also brought areas of Bradford often ignored by TV and the arts to the public consciousness.

It was in the Beacon where Dunbar collapsed after suffering a brain haemorrhage in 1990 at the age of just 29.

She later died.

The Beacon was built in the 1960s, but had struggled in later years before eventually shutting its doors for the final time in August 2016.

The building, on Reevy Road West, next to Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College, remains boarded up, and the applicants say it has been a victim of vandalism in recent years.

Despite the pub’s significance, the plans to knock the pub down met with no objections from the public.

Richard Dunbar, Andrea Dunbar’s nephew and Labour Councillor for Thornton and Allerton, said the demolition would be the “end of an era” for Buttershaw, but admitted many neighbouring residents would be happy to see the vacant building go.

And in a poll conducted in the Telegraph and Argus in March, when the planning application was first announced, 58 per cent of the 1,538 people who took part said they would not be sad to see the Beacon demolished.

In the planning application the developers said that in recent years the building “has remained empty and subject to some vandalism.”

It added: “It has not been registered (or even promoted) as an Asset of Community Value and whereas the loss of any pub is regrettable, it is clearly not, and never was, a focus for sports teams, social groups, local societies, community meetings or other community activities.

“It is a fact that in some locations a pub is simply not viable and the owners, despite their best endeavours, have been reluctantly obliged to accept this fact.”

The application for housing is only in outline form - with more detailed plans being submitted at a later date.

The development will take the form of detached, semi detached and terraced houses built around a cul-de-sac.

One condition of the application is that each home has an electric charging point installed, and that construction only takes place between 7.30am and 6pm.