CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has said it will back a scheme to turn a part of a Grade II listed timber-framed pub in Bildeston into two flats – but only if planners believe there will not be another application to change the rest of the pub.

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has said it will back a scheme to turn a part of a Grade 2 listed timber-framed pub in Bildeston into two flats – but only if planners believe there will not be another application to change the rest of the pub.

In a letter to Babergh District Council, Roger Waters, CAMRA's Suffolk county co-ordinator, said: "It would be an injustice to the community, future generations and a mockery of the principles of sustainable development to find the remainder of the King's Head Inn subject to another change of use application within a very short while, claiming non-viability."

Kevin Harrison, owner of the King's Head in the village High Street, has asked for permission to change the use of one third of the pub, which has its own small brewery behind the main building.

The rest of the building would continue to be a pub with two bedrooms on the first floor offered for bed and breakfast accommodation.

He has argued that the village cannot sustain three pubs as well as the village hall bar.

Mr Harrison was refused an earlier application to convert the whole building to a home in September last year.

However Babergh planning officers are recommending that councillors grant planning permission for the new scheme at the council's development committee meeting on Wednesday.