AN application to knock down a disused Glasgow pub and build apartments and a convenience store has been refused.

The plan involved demolishing the White Elephant on Merrylee Road, near Clarkston Road, between Muirend and Cathcart, replacing it with 20 flats and a 300-square-metre shop.

The proposal was rejected by city planners who said it amounted to overdevelopment and that there was not enough car parking.

Their report stated: “While most of the proposed flatted dwellings would be dual aspect, 40 per cent would be single aspect.

“Apartments 5 and 12 are shown to be the smallest in size in addition to having a single aspect above the service area for the retail unit and over a builders’ merchant yard.

“These have been raised multiple times with the applicant as not demonstrating amenity that is ‘similar if not better than that of dual aspect flats’.

“The applicant was requested to design out these small, single aspect flats, which would bring the proposal within the density range for a site in the outer urban area and would reduce the shortfall in residents’ parking.

“This amendment has been resisted and a justification was provided. The justification is not considered to outweigh this policy tension.

“The proposal is overdevelopment of the site and is therefore poorly designed.”