A FORMER Stalybridge pub site will be transformed into six houses if planning permission is granted.
Daniel Crowther of Paved Way Ltd, wants to convert what was the Travellers Call on Wakefield Road into the properties.
And they feel the two-bedroomed affordable accommodation it would provide would be a boost to the area, which has seen the venue stand boarded up since it closed in 2019.
A statement says: “We believe this proposal, along with a structured development, will improve the appearance and safety around this area.
“This seems a good opportunity to re-introduce an affordable housing facility into the area it was originally intended.”
An application made to the council to convert the former pub into eight two-bedroom apartments was rejected in April, with the scheme, which would have seen a level added, described as ‘incongruous’.
The Stalybridge-based applicants say a blue plaque honouring Victoria Cross recipient John Buckley will be kept.
He was born at nearby Cocker Hill in May 1813 and received the Victoria Cross for bravery while working as Assistant Commissionary of Ordnance at the Delhi Magazine, India, in May 1857.
Mutineers against British rule reached Delhi, where Buckley and his fellow eight soldiers defending the magazine were vastly outnumbered.
But rather than let the ammunition fall into enemy hands they decided to blow up the building and themselves. Miraculously four of them, including Buckley, survived.
Buckley was captured by the enemy and soon learnt that his entire family had been ruthlessly murdered by the rebels.
He later escaped and rejoined the army, volunteering for all manner of dangerous missions.
After falling ill, he lived for a short while in Stalybridge before returning to India as a Major in October 1861.
The final years of his life were spent in London and he was buried in an unmarked grave in Tower Hamlets Cemetery.
His Victoria Cross is at the Royal Army Ordnance Corps Museum in Camberley, Surrey.
Tameside Council’s Speakers Panel (Planning) committee will decide whether to grant or refuse planning permission.