A BID to breathe new life into a historic “haunted” pub has run into the spectre of opposition.

The owners of the Black Dog Inn in Newent want to upgrade the rundown pub building – said to be haunted by a headless Cavalier named Charlie – with upmarket B&B accommodation, a restaurant and a bar.

And they hope to fund it by obtaining planning permission for eight new homes in the car park to create “a cottage street scene.”

But the town council has objected, citing “numerous concerns” about the Church Street scheme, including a “reduction in privacy” for residents living in neighbouring sheltered accommodation for the elderly and disabled, “inadequate” parking and traffic concerns.

Named after a highwayman’s hound, the Black Dog was a Royalist stronghold when it was a farm in the Civil War.

According to the Campaign for Real Ale, the Cavalier’s ghostly presence reputedly haunts the premises, alongside the spirit of the “Lavender Lady”, a woman who sold nosegays to ward off the stench of unwashed England in the Middle Ages.

The pub, on the boundary of a conservation area, closed down in June 2015 and was bought by the applicants Mr and Mrs Southall last year with a view to upgrading the Grade II-listed building.

A report to Forest planners by their agent Angela Wadley says: “This planning application will secure the long-term future of The Black Dog by providing on-site owner/

manager accommodation, with good quality rooms for bed/breakfast and a restaurant/public bar to attract the local community to bring it back to life.”

It adds that the couple had experience of renovating pubs and “there appears to be a need to provide a premises (in Newent) that offers a drinking house, restaurant and bed and breakfast facilities.”

The building of four two-bedroom homes and four one-bedroom flats in the pub car park would enable the alterations and renovation of the half-timbered Black Dog to go ahead, the report states.

The owners have applied for an “Enabling Development” permit, which allows historic buildings in conservation areas to be developed where it can be shown that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

One of the “benefits” would be blocking out the view of the 1960s St Bartholomews OAP complex next door, adds the report.

The pub upgrade would see the four-storey building remodelled to create five upmarket en suite rooms with historic features and disabled accommodation in a detached garage, while the original attic servants’ quarters would be converted into a two-bedroom flat for the manager of the premises.

But, informing Forest planners that the town council opposed the scheme, town clerk Katherine Noble said: “Neighbouring properties of St Bartholomew’s, Kathleen House and Ross Willis Court, all of which are residences for the elderly, disabled or sheltered accommodation would suffer from significant visual impact and reduction in privacy from the properties being built in the current car parking area.

“The car parking provision for the houses, B&B and the public house is completely inadequate and will cause further congestion on the surrounding roads.”

She also said a proposed access road way was situated on a significant bend in the road, and current residents who live behind and next to the Black Dog had a right of way through the current car park, while emergency services could also be impeded.