ONE of a Hampshire town’s landmark buildings is being demolished after a long-running planning row that ended in defeat for conservationists.

A Government-appointed planning inspector has approved a controversial proposal to bulldoze the former Wellworthy Social Club in Lymington and replace it with housing.

The club, also known as Reedley House, is next door to a row of Grade II-listed cottages.

A plan to build ten three-storey houses on the site was approved by the district council earlier this year.

Reedley House is Lymington’s last link with the Wellworthy engineering company, which employed more than 1,000 people in the town.

The club stayed open after the factory closed in the 1980s but few people made use of the property and it shut in 2005.