A derelict pub which has been the scene of unexplained fires, squatters and fly-tipping for around 18 months, could be demolished and transformed for housing.

The Pompadours, Edenhall Road, Harold Hill, served its last pint in March 2016 and has been standing empty ever since.

Starstone Ventures Ltd is proposing to knock down the building and build 15 three bedroom houses and six two bedroom houses, which would be “family homes”, in its wake.

Residents in Harold Hill have received flyers from the development company which says that 25pc of the homes being sold will be reserved for Havering residents.

If any of these are not sold by the end of January 2019 then these properties will be placed on the open market.

A vocal campaign was launched to prevent the pub’s historic building being bulldozed to make way for a block of 25 flats when plans were filed in 2015.

Havering Council officers refused those plans after they were labelled “excessively dense” – days after a residents’ protest.

When the pub closed in 2016, travellers occupied the site for around 24 hours, leaving piles of rubbish in their wake.

In May 2016, an outhouse that had stood empty for two months was gutted by an unexplained fire, and just four months later firefighters were called out to the pub twice in one night to tackle fires on the supposedly empty first floor.

In both cases, residents believe squatters were to blame, though this was not confirmed by the London Fire Brigade.

The planning application is due to be submitted sometime this month.

What do you think about the proposal? Email hayley.anderson@archant.co.uk