Pub-goers could be left without a single watering hole along one high street if plans to convert a former boozer into a café and flats are approved.

The Wheatsheaf Pub in Swanscombe High Street looks to set be demolished under proposals submitted to Dartford council.

Plans include bulldozing the boozer and replacing it with a café and two-bed flat on the ground floor.

There would also be six two-bed apartments erected across two floors above with 31 car parking spaces and eight covered cycle spaces below.

A report due to be presented before Dartford council's development control board on Thursday has recommended the application be approved.

The Wheatsheaf sits on a detached corner plot off the High Street in a built-up residential area. To view the plans click here and search 21/01893/FUL.

Last year it had been re-offered to the market as a pub with a 20-year lease but it is understood the freehold was sold when a suitable takeover bid failed to materialise.

The proposal is accompanied by a viability study carried out by real estate specialists Savills.

It noted the pub was in a "poor state of repair" and accounts showed a decline in trade when last open between 2017 and 2019.

Although there was a small profit in its last year – when the rent was reduced by half – its performance declined from around £145,000 to £130,000 and it made a "considerable loss".

And in a challenging market for pubs post-pandemic the report states it has "no reasonable prospect" of returning and needs significant investment to "refurbish, repair and redecorate" it.

In total there were 36 responses to the application with 16 against and 20 in favour.

Swanscombe and Greenhithe Town Council objected on the basis it had unsuitable parking and the building was "out of character" with the area.

Other objections centred around the loss of yet another pub and pressure on schools, doctors' surgeries and the High Street which is "used as rat-run", the report said.

But others said it could help solve housing issues while the café element could pave the way for the regeneration of the town in light of a "reduction in groups gathering since the pub closed".

The plans come not long after the closure of the nearby pub The Alma along the same stretch of road.

An outline application to knock down the pub and convert it into a 13-bedroom house-share was approved in 2019.

Meanwhile, the future of the The George and Dragon, which has sat on the corner of the junction between London Road and Swanscombe High Street since 1891, remains uncertain.

The former Victorian coaching inn was subject to two recent conversion bids with franchise chain Domino's Pizza wanting to take over.

But the latest bid was refused in 2020 and an appeal against the decision was refused by the Planning Inspectorate and saw the plans scrapped.

According to viability assessments carried out on behalf of the pizza joint, the building's days as a pub are numbered.

But planning inspectors said the marketing exercises took place in a period of economic uncertainty during the pandemic.

And as a listed asset of community value, they were not convinced that its "potential for the community to actively manage it" had been adequately explored.

As such the appeal was dismissed on the basis it would result in the "unjustified loss of a community facility".