A Moray landmark is to be demolished after developers’ attempts to maintain it were scuppered by planning regulations.
Villagers in Lhanbryde were outraged when the local authority rubber-stamped plans to flatten the Tennant Arms last year.
In response to their protests, owner Tahir Pervaiz pledged to examine ways of incorporating a shop into the building rather than tearing it down.
Yesterday it emerged that those investigations had failed to find any means of keeping the 19th century hotel intact.
But campaigner Gill Stewart vowed to continue the fight for the Tennant Arms.
She said: “We are not giving up on it yet, we still have hopes there could be a way of saving the building.”
More than 100 residents attended a heated public meeting on the plans last year, and Mrs Stewart said she was aiming to stage a further summit to discuss the setback.
She also said she would write to Moray Council to ask whether planning regulations regarding the site could be relaxed in order to save the building.
An application to demolish the venue was first lodged in 2015.
A final version went before the council’s planning committee in November, and was approved despite locals’ passionate pleas to reject it.
Although given the go-ahead, Mr Pervaiz said he had been staggered by the ferocity of the opposition to the proposal and tried to find out if the building could host the grocery store.
His design consultant, Colin Keir, subsequently explored “every avenue” to see whether that was possible – but yesterday admitted defeat.
Mr Keir said: “I looked at the options which would allow us to keep the building but none of them would comply with legislation regarding road safety.
“The council’s roads department made it quite clear they have certain specific requirements, which we can’t achieve.
“It’s just not possible to save the building, and it’s worth noting it would have been far cheaper for my client to keep it there.”
Mr Keir added: “I’m fairly confident the design I have come up with will reflect the old building.”