Workmen have moved onto the site of a dilapidated pub that closed after a shooting more than 10 years ago

A decision is pending on whether The White Lion in Cheriton High Street can be redeveloped as accommodation for ex-servicemen.

The pub has been vacant and boarded up since 2006, with some windows bricked up, after former owners Shepherd Neame sold up.

It was the scene of a shooting in May of that year.

The pub was a popular drinking spot in the 1980s and 1990s.

But this week scaffolding has been erected at the front and the decade-old breeze blocks removed from the windows.

An application to make it into student accommodation was approved with conditions in November 2007, but this idea never materialised and the permission has now expired.

Plans have been registered with Shepway District Council for the pub to become an ex-servicemen’s home, which requires conversion of the existing building.

It also asks for permission to build five extra houses with gardens, parking and landscaping at the rear of the property in Chilham Road.

The application by the landowner, Atlas Partners Group, and not-for-profit charity Reveille Homes, was submitted nearly a year ago.

According to the planning statements Reveille Community Homes (RCH) Ltd is a charity that works with integrating former servicemen into society once they have come back from their duties.

RCH said that new occupants who join the scheme will be signed up to a contract of “good will”, which will include a care package.

Two wardens will also live on-site, the plans confirm.

The new centre, if approved, is said to have “special significance” and will “repay the deep debt” owed to the those who have fought for the country, the statement says.

Shepway District Council has confirmed that the application is in the “registered” stage but it is not known when a decision will be made.Pub conversion would see homes for ex-servicemen

A spokesman said: “The application hasn’t been decided yet and the applicant doesn’t need planning permission to put up scaffolding.”