LAST orders could soon be called at a Potters Bar pub after plans for its redevelopment into flats emerged.

Plans to tear down the Bridge House, in Mutton Lane, and replace it with two residential blocks consisting of eight two-bedroom flats, and associated off-street parking, have been submitted to Hertsmere Borough Council.

The application, made by Lantern Recovery Specialists, is due to be decided by the council’s planning committee next month.

Despite the application to knock the pub down, Lantern Recovery Specialists spokeswoman Kathy Chapman told the Potters Bar Edition: “That is a planning request, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen.”

She added: “The pub is up and running and doing very well.”

But, flatly contradicting her comments, pub manager Bob Young said: “There’s an application in for redevelopment.”

“We’re doing everything we can to make a living but the way things have been going over the last two to three years there’s nothing we can do.”

He said he expected the pub to be torn down to make way for the flats within the “next two to three years”.

He said any redevelopment would not include a rebuilt pub.

Mr Young cited spiralling beer taxes, prices and the smoking ban for what he sees as a terminal decline in trade.

Despite being primarily an auto-recovery firm based in High Street, Potters Bar, Lantern Recovery Specialists has a wide-ranging property portfolio and several other business ventures including a funeral service.