One of the oldest pubs in the Harrogate district reopened on Friday – just weeks after planners granted permission to convert the site into a convenience store.

Locals in Killinghall wondered whether last orders had been called for the final time at The Three Horseshoes when it closed for lockdown.

Ilkley company Dynamic Capital Killinghall had submitted plans to Harrogate Borough Council to demolish the building and construct a convenience store and four flats.

When the plans were approved this month, it appeared to herald a new chapter for the site, which has hosted a pub for 150 years.

But the pub reopened at the weekend and the developers have yet to confirm when the conversion will take place.

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One of the council's conditions was to install six electric vehicle charging points.

Rogers said the convenience store, which will be in the middle of Killinghall on the busy Ripon Road, would open seven days a week from 7am to 11pm and was expected to create 15 part-time and full-time jobs.

Forty-one individual representations supported the proposal and six opposed it. The council also received a petition signed by 232 people objecting to the loss of the pub.

Councillors decided “the proposal would provide substantial social and environmental benefits” and approved it.

The public body Historic England rejected a proposal this year to grant the pub listed building status.

Punch Taverns, which owns the pub, did not reply to The Stray Ferret's request for a comment.