THE fate of a long-derelict pub may finally be decided as proposals are set to go before a planning committee meeting next week.

The Jack Russell Pub, Salford Road, Marston, has been at the centre of a long-running saga since it was sold by brewery Greene King in October 2015.

The owner went on to submit an application, which was later withdrawn, to demolish the building and transform it into 16 flats together with 19 car parking spaces.

The application faced a barrage of local concern with residents and councillors blasting the plans as a 'carbuncle' at the time.

A second application for the site then came forward in December for the three-storey block of flats, an application which will now be determined by Oxford City Council on March 8, according to planning officers.

Speaking ahead of the meeting Marston councillor Mick Haines and long-running campaigner to keep the pub going as a community asset, said that the loss of another community space for the area was ‘scandalous.’

He said: “I am pretty confident that it will be voted down at the planning meeting. There have been a few alterations with the new planning application but I can’t see an awful lot different, it is still three storeys high.

"It’s a carbuncle as I said before.

“It is the height that’s the main problem and also the parking situation in that area.

“Everyone that we have spoken to are all against it, they are all opposed to it. They want something for the community there.

“I would love to see it opened up as a pub again or something totally different, something for the community.”

In November the pub was gutted in a suspected arson attack.

Two months later the owner of Templar's Bar and Kitchen, Barns Road, Cowley, Ronnie Pollitt, said that he wanted to buy the pub in a bid to restore it to its former glory.

At the time he said that although the plan was at an early stage it would depend on dialogue with the owner.

While those plans are yet to resurface since the announcement the ultimate fate of the pub is now expected to be decided at the meeting next week.

The planning committee meeting will be held on Wednesday March 8 at Oxford City Council's Town Hall, as well as a number of other planning applications up for decision.

The meeting is free to attend and open to the public and the agenda is expected to be published today.