A former snooker club and dancehall will be knocked down and a block of flats put up in its place.

Swindon Borough Council planners have even the green light to the plan by developer Mark Gray, who runs RPM Ltd, to knock down the former printworks in Horsham Road in Park South.

The building was better known as the snooker hall called the Green Baize and then the Baize Social Club.

The club closed in 2005. RPM’s application to knock it down and rebuild the site said there had been little interest in using the building as it is: “Since then no tenant has been able to be found despite all efforts, so it has lain vacant for six years.

"In this time, various adjacent plots have been redeveloped for residential use. Therefore, rather than keep it vacant it is proposed to convert it also to residential use as it lies in the heart of Swindon’s urban area.”

The submitted plans show a three-storey L-shaped building with a roof gable in the middle of the flat front façade.

The nine two-bed flats will be arranged in the same layout - three to a floor.

There will be 18 parking spaces provided, exceeding the minimum requirement of 12. The developer said this would be an improvement on the previous club which saw patrons parking on the street.

In recommending approval, Euclid Street planners said the developer’s designs fitted the local area well: “Fenestration would emulate the design of other flatted blocks across Horsham Road.

“The scale of the building blends with recent residential developments on this part of Horsham Road as has the choice of building materials. The proposed residential building is therefore not considered to depart from the established residential character of the area.

The benefits of the development are that it makes use of a brownfield site in a highly sustainable location, and providing the much-needed housing in the borough is considered acceptable.

There were no objections to the plans lodged by either neighbours or South Swindon Parish Council.

Because the site was originally a printworks there will have to be an examination of the soil under the building for contamination.

If none is found work can go ahead on building the flats.