A pub expert has criticised the “scary” trend of Kent boozers being converted into homes or Airbnbs as another looks set to be lost to housing.

Historian Rory Kehoe - who researches past and present inns across the county - believes they are a “social centre” that should be protected.

He hit out after plans emerged to transform one of Kent’s oldest pubs – the 17th-century Three Compasses in Deal – into two flats.

If approved, the proposal would be the latest to see a historic inn turned into homes.

Mr Kehoe says pubs are a community asset and believes the number of sites being lost to housing is devastating.

“I'm against the idea of converting pubs into flats or Airbnbs, as is very common at the moment, and it's actually very scary,” he said.

“I think pubs should be protected to a certain extent because they are a great asset to a community.

“They're a social centre. It's a regulated alcohol outlet. It's not like drinking beer out of a brown paper bag in the park.”

The Three Compasses has been a familiar site in Beach Street, Deal, since 1661, when it first opened as the New Inn.

But now bosses behind the Grade II-listed building, which has in recent years been run more as a restaurant, hope to convert the main bar area on the ground floor into two separate flats.

The seafront venue sits within the Middle Street Conservation Area and is surrounded by other listed properties, but Smith Group says the designs will be in keeping with neighbouring buildings.

The plans have emerged in the wake of a decision last month to green-light plans to turn the Grade II-listed Chequers Inn in Smarden into a house,

Long-serving landlady Melissa Hollywood – the wife of TV baker Paul Hollywood -told of the “unforgivable” personal attacks she and her family have faced over plans to covert the 14th-century inn.

In March, the owners of the former Saracens Head in Alfred Square, Deal, were granted permission to turn it into a home.

Opponents had described the bid as “cultural vandalism” but failed in their efforts to save the pub and its 200-year history as Dover District Council saw “no reason” to reject the plans.

The following month, The Dewdrop Inn in Tower Hamlets was narrowly granted permission to be turned into a 12-bed HMO.

Neighbours argued that converting a former pub into a home would exacerbate parking chaos in their “already overcrowded” road.

In most bids to convert a pub, applicants have to prove the business is no longer viable and that all efforts to market it as a going concern have proved fruitless.

Mr Kehoe says this is becoming easier because of the costs imposed on those trying to keep the county’s boozers afloat.

“The taxation on pubs is obscene,” he said.

“They have been seen as unofficial tax-gatherers by successive chancellors.

“If you look at almost any other type of retail business, pubs end up paying more tax and it makes some of the businesses unviable, particularly if it's a tenanted place and you're having to buy in beer at an inflated price.

“And you can't just say, ‘oh, I'll go to the next nearest pub’ because all pubs are different.

“Some are sports-themed, some are more food-based and others focus on music.

“The great thing about having so many pubs is you have a choice and if you start eliminating choice, then people are going to just go to the supermarket and pick up a six-pack and a bottle of vodka and sit in front of Netflix.”