PERMISSION to transform the only pub in a rural Ribble Valley village into a residential house has been given the green light.

Ribble Valley Borough Council approved the plan for The Black Bull in Rimington, which shut its doors for the final time at the end of October last year, at a meeting on Thursday night.

Owners Katherine Lachance and Steve Hodgson took over the Rimington Lane pub in 2011 and turned it into a traditional French country inn.

However the pair closed the pub in summer 2012 for six months before it reopened under new management.

Bob Whittaker, chairman of Rimington Parish Council, said: “This is particularly disappointing as the main argument put forward by the applicant was that the business was not viable.

“It is agreed that the business was not viable in the way it was being run, but that does not mean it wouldn't be under suitable direction.”