ONE month after owners Eldridge Pope called time on Lilliput's only pub - the bulldozers have moved in.

Demolition work to knock down The Beehive has started, marking a poignant end to the popular pub.

The pub's demise follows a hard-fought campaign by the Beehive Action Group to save the much-loved watering hole, which dates back 188 years.

This was also backed by Poole planners who even sought government support in their bid to save the pub.

Officers wrote to the government and described their frustration at being powerless to stop it being demolished.

They were legally unable to intervene in the £3.2m deal between Eldridge Pope and developers Emlor Homes and appealed for a change in the law.

But the response from the Department of Transport, Local Government and Regions was disappointing. They confirmed that buildings such as pubs are outside planning control and added they had no plans to change the law to give councils more power.

Now planning chiefs can only wait for the submission of a formal application disclosing new plans for the site and ensure that no tree orders are breached within this.

There are 32 trees which each have a tree preservation order slapped on them but a recent site visit by the council deemed that 11 of these could be felled owing to their poor condition.

This recommendation will now be put before the planning committee next Thursday.

David Jobbins, a team leader in the development control department, explained the council's disappointment at the pub's demolition.

He said: "It is very sad. None of us here wanted to see it demolished but we were powerless to stop it.

"We will just have to watch this space to wait for an application to come in to see what they have planned for the site."