THE Signal Box in Temple is staying open – despite the city council approving plans for its demolition. 

Michael Holmes, who took over the pub last Monday, said he has a six-month lease with an option to extend. 

He said there has been planning permission on the Fulton Street site before, but work has never got started. 

Glasgow City Council recently gave the green light to applicant Kulbinder Singh’s proposal to knock down the pub and build six flats. 

Read more: Signal Box : Green light for Anniesland pub demolition

If he proceeds with the plan, there will be five two-bedroom and a one-bedroom flat. 

Detail Architecture, which designed the planned development, said: “Our current proposal on behalf of our client, who has recently purchased the site, is to demolish the pub and replace it with six new flats within one three-storey block to the south of the site, leaving the north half of the site clear for use as parking for cars and bicycles and private recreational green space for the use of the residents. 

“This is also an opportunity for an elegant and original solution that achieves something of more architectural value than the rather generic and standardised semi-detached/terraced suburban house-types that currently surround the site.” 

Planning consent was previously granted for a three-storey block, containing seven flats, in 2008 but work did not get under way. 

Back in March, locals from Anniesland, Knightswood and Temple launched a petition, signed by almost 400 people, calling on the city council to reject the planning application.

Mr Holmes said at the time: “As in many small and tightknit communities The Siggy would quickly become the heart of it. 

“If Glasgow City Council approve these plans to demolish the pub, they will also be demolishing the heart of Temple and Shafton. 

“Although the building is in a poor state visually, it is structurally sound.” 

The pub was built by Tennents Caledonian Breweries in 1971 as a railway-themed bar.