127-year-old Bilston pub which twice survived the bulldozers could finally be demolished to extend Lidl car park

A fresh planning application has been lodged to demolish The Swan Inn in Bilston, less than four years after a previous plan was submitted.

It is the third time that the Victorian pub has come under the threat of demolition.

Lidl, which owns the supermarket next door, wants the site to extend its car park.

The pub closed because of Covid lockdown restrictions of 2021, and later that year the supermarket giant submitted plans to demolish both the pub and its existing store, to replace it with a new one.

The scheme never went ahead, and now the retailer has lodged new plans which will go before Wolverhampton planners.

The pub, which opened in 1898, was operated by Marston's, which sold it to Lidl in 2021.

In 1992 it was in danger of being demolished under council plans for redevelopment of the area, but a campaign to save it proved successful, although its neighbour the Golden Cups was flattened.

When the most recent application to demolish the pub came before planners, director of asset heritage at Wolverhampton Council said: "The Swan is of relatively low heritage interest and demolition will result in better-defined access to the car park.”