A HISTORIC pub in Westhoughton will be razed to the ground to make way for new assistant living complex.

The future of the Red Lion Hotel in Wigan Road was discussed at the Bolton Council planning committee after a second application from the Woodlands Care Group.

The company already had planning permission to build a 55 bedroom care home adjacent, but needs to completely demolish the old pub — thought to date back between 350 and 400 years — to build 16 assisted living care apartments.

Woodlands was given conservation area consent in February 2014 for the part demolition and conversion of the Red Lion, and has now said it will build an ‘almost like for like replacement’.

Westhoughton councillor Anne-Marie Watters urged the builders and developers to retain any items of historical interest they find when bulldozing the site.

She said: “This is a really sad one for me, it is in my area.

“Unfortunately the Red Lion pub has suffered from a lack of investment over the last 40 years.

“It is really, really with sadness that I feel I need to approve this application.”

Since receiving permission last year, builders have knocked down a large part of the Red Lion, leaving behind the three storey element and front section facing Wegian Road.

But more survey work has been carried out and inspectors have decided the building is ‘beyond conversion’ with a massive reconstruction of the property, a report to councillors said.

The Woodlands Group currently run a care home in Atherton with 38 bedrooms, and on their website say they are ‘well under way’ with construction of their latest venture.

The group said: "Our 55 bedded home has been designed to provide comfortable homely living incorporating many important principles that support the care being provided, space to be with others, private and quiet areas, easily navigated and secure gardens, visibility and signage, to name a few.”

The new facility is expected to be completed in the summer of 2015.