Fresh plans have been put forward to turn a former pub into a community education centre.

As long ago as November 2011 the Examiner reported on plans to transform The Jolly Sailor at Broad Lane, Dalton, which had closed as a pub following financial difficulties.

But there were concerns over parking and the number of community halls already in the area, and the plan was rejected.

The following year a new plan was revealed to turn the one time popular boozer into a mosque.

The application was made by local resident Arshad Naz who claimed the plan would improve the area for the community. That did not go ahead either.

Now a fresh set of plans by Mr Naz, of Haaris & Co. Ltd have been created by Huddersfield-based company IQ Architecture & Design.

The plans request a change of use at basement and ground floors to an education centre.

An existing residential apartment at first-floor level would be retained for the facility manager/caretaker.

The development brief says the operation would provide education classes and one-to-one tutoring sessions for students in specialised subjects such as maths, physics and art.

There would also be opportunities to help in community relations, social interaction and cohesion.

The proposed hours of opening would be from 8am to 11pm, Monday to Sunday.

The brief emphasises the need for such a facility in the Dalton/Rawthorpe district where local schools are statistically under-performing in comparison to national and Local Education Authority averages.

Cabinet member and ward councillor Peter McBride said: “The issue is one of parking and traffic.

“The plan’s proposers will have to convince the committee they will be able to deal with these matters and provide proper travel plans.

“It is a very busy road and the plans are quite substantially different from the original ones.

“Obviously we want to bring a disused building back into use. We need to ensure these plans don’t create further traffic problems”.