THE historic Sarisbury Inn in Sarisbury Green is to be retained - but as five flats.

Fareham planners have given their consent for the 200-year-old building to be refurbished and 18 new homes built alongside it in Bridge Road.

Developers KingsOak went back to the drawing board after their plans to demolish the pub to make way for housing were thrown out earlier this year.

Some residents are still concerned over tree conservation, ownership of part of the land and access by lorries to the nearby industrial park.

But most have withdrawn their objections to the plans, which were discussed by members of Fareham Council's planning committee last night.

The Fareham Society had campaigned for the retention of the inn as part of the village's rich history.

But their spokeswoman Brenda Clapperton spoke out at the meeting in favour of the revised plans.

She said: "This is a much more acceptable scheme. We particularly wanted to retain the public house and as it can't be a pub it can be reused for residential accommodation as has been done very succesfully elsewhere.

"It's a very important part of Sarisbury's history.

"We need to keep any historic feature on that building for its former use to be recognised."

Developers have also agreed to attach a plaque to the building explaining its history.

The development would include open space and car parking.

The homes are two four-bedroom houses, three three-bedroom houses, five two-bedroom houses, seven two-bedroom flats and one one-bedroom flat.