Warmley-based brewery Bath Ales plans to take over empty pub

Bath Ales is set to take over the empty Hollybush pub just up the road from its Warmley base.

A plan has been drawn up to extend the former coaching inn.

Subject to winning planning permission from South Gloucestershire Council, Bath Ales wants to make the pub its latest venture.

Its portfolio includes the Swan at Swineford, Hop Pole in Bath, Live & Let Live in Frampton Cotterell and the Wellington in Gloucester Road, Bristol.

The planning application from Bath Ales says the Hollybush had become a "tired and uneconomic pub".

It is proposed to refurbish the inn to make it larger and lighter, create a dining area seating 85 and link the main pub building to a barn that will house a kitchen.

The entrance off Bath Road would be changed and parking for 23 vehicles provided.

Nearly three years ago the council's licensing sub-committee imposed a number of conditions on previous licensees at the Hollybush after  complaints about the way it was being run.

Last autumn Bath Ales revealed plans to double the amount of beer it brews in the next two years - and quadruple it in five years' time.

The company, based on the Caxton Business Park, has already transferred its transport and logistics team to the bigger site less than a mile away at Southway Drive where the bottling plant was bottling plant is.

Land next to it became available, meaning the whole operation can be on one site.