A DIDCOT pub is set to be replaced by houses despite complaints it will leave some residents without a local watering hole.

South Oxfordshire District Council this week approved brewer Greene King’s application for planning permission to demolish the Waterwitch in Cockcroft Road and build eight terraced homes in the site.

The 45-year-old pub could close within months. The brewery said it was “unviable” as a business.

Councillors approved the plan after a planning officer’s report said other pubs, including the Crown and Royal Oak, were within half-a-mile.

Didcot Town Council had criticised the plan. In a letter to the committee it said: “The closest pubs are not within walking distance for the elderly or physically impaired.

“The location is not a town centre site and the density is not appropriate. It is overdevelopment.”

Residents also expressed concerns about the loss of car parking outside the pub, sometimes used as overflow parking for Northbourne Primary School.

Didcot’s mayor John Flood said: “It’s a shame that the Waterwitch is going to close but you can’t make a company run a pub if it’s losing money.”

The pub opened in 1965 and was named after a Second World War Royal Navy minesweeper.

Margaret Turner, chairman of the town council’s planning committee, said: “We felt it would be a shame if the pub went, because it’s a good facility for the local community.”

Greene King spokesman Elaine Beckett said: “The Waterwitch remains open for business. We will market it for sale, with the benefit of planning consent, and the pub will remain open while we do this.”

In January, landlord Robbie Warrior said the pub cost £3,500 a week to run but was earning only £2,200 a week.

He was not available for comment following the decision.

The plan was approved by the district council’s planning committee on Wednesday.