A STRUGGLING moorland village pub can be converted into a private house after efforts to sell it as a going concern failed, planning officers have decided.

The Moon and Sixpence, at Glaisdale, in the Esk Valley near Whitby, is one of three pubs in the beauty spot.

A previous application to change it into a house was refused by the North York Moors National Park's planning committee because there was no evidence to prove the pub was not viable.

Owner Marilyn Horbury closed it in September last year because of a lack of trade, but it was re-opened in April in an attempt to sell it as a business, on the advice of estate agents, she told the committee.

Because there were still no takers, she has now been given permission to convert the pub into a four-bedroom house.

Val Dilcock, the park's chief planning officer, said: "The original application was not considered acceptable because it would have resulted in the loss of a community facility, particularly in the absence of any marketing exercise or information on its viability".

Mrs Horbury said that when she bought the pub, there was only one other hostelry in the village but, shortly afterwards, The Mitre Tavern re-opened, making three.