A DISTINGUISHED New-port landmark will become a pub/restaurant if a planning application from George Wimpey Homes is approved.

Lysaghts Institute in Liswerry has played a sentimental role in thousands of Newportonian lives as a social club and a venue for ballroom dancing, live music and wedding receptions.

It was opened in 1928 by the Lysaghts family who arrived in Newport in the Edwardian age to open the huge Orb Steelworks.

Wimpey is in the process of acquiring the 20-acre site on the corner of Corporation Road and Spytty Road from Newport council and Hazells Ltd 2000 pension scheme.

It's a stone's throw from the new Usk bridge and the opening of the Southern Distrib-utor Road next month will put the fading landmark back into the limelight.

Wimpey is planning to build 350 to 450 homes on the site, but is bowing to Newport council's demands that an ongoing use be found for the building.

Jonathan Phillips, development director for Wimpey, said: "Although the building is not officially listed, it's described as being of 'local historical interest' and the council wants to find a new role for it. So, we're talking to several commercial operators who might like to use it as the basis for a family pub or restaurant.

"I know about its reputation because my mother was from Abercarn and she al-ways spoke very fondly of it."

Mr Phillips said the residential development would be behind Lysaghts.

"The institute will provide a useful screen from what will be a busy road once it opens. We will also be doing a lot of landscaping of the site."

Officially the scheme is being called a "mixed used development incorporating open space."

Mr Phillips said: "We would keep an acre of wetland as we believe it would offer significant ecological benefits."

The units will range from around 500 sq ft to 1,350 sq ft and include one-bedroom and two-bedroom flats and two, three and four-bedroom houses.

"We still have a few issues to negotiate with the council, particularly on the issue of flood controls, but otherwise we think this is a very exciting, comprehensive redevelopment."

There is a public right of way affected by the development. Residents wishing to view the plans at the civic centre should quote reference number 04/1173.