A PUB that was shut down after a mass brawl is to be transformed into flats.

The Lord Raglan has been closed for 18 months after a large-scale fight that spilled out into Water Street, Radcliffe, prompted police to have its licence revoked.

Bury Council’s planning committee have now given the go-ahead for the Victorian building to be converted into six flats.

The applicant, John Mulcahy, said at Tuesday’s planning meeting: “When I bought this pub it was financially unviable and I understand it has been sold a number of previous times to people trying to open it as a pub.

“I also understand that police had an enforcement order to close the pub.

“We are looking to revitalise a landmark building and provide residential accommodation, which there is a huge demand for.

“In our original application, we applied for 10 apartments and we have agreed to reduce that to six, with six parking spaces.”

An attempt to re-open the pub under new ownership was rejected in September 2015, after police raised concerns that it would still be controlled by the former licence holder.

After the violent incident in May 2015, police said there was a history of staff at the pub being uncooperative with officers.

Nearby residents also complained of drug use, anti-social behaviour, and noise when the council considered plans to re-open the pub last year.

Objectors to the new housing development, of which there were six, said that the flats could create more congestion and parking problems for local residents.

One letter of objection stated that residents were “fed up with developers offering cramped cheap accommodation, to sell more numbers and make a quick profit instead of providing quality, desirable housing that is of more value to the area in general.”

The Lord Raglan was sold at auction earlier this year, the new owners said that they wanted to keep most of the existing structure intact in order to “maintain the integrity and character of the building and therefore the building’s contribution to the historic and architectural character” of Radcliffe.

The council planning office’s report into the proposal said: “Sited close to Radcliffe town centre, it would be in a sustainable location, with existing infrastructure in place to support the scale of the development proposed.

“The proposals demonstrate that the property could be successfully converted to provide residential accommodation of an acceptable scale within this location. The redevelopment of the site would aid the regeneration of the building and contribute to the provision of much needed housing.”

Council officers added that parking for six apartments would be unlikely to produce any more nuisance than the pub previously did.