A MUSIC venue that hosted early concerts from Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Cream is to be demolished and turned into flats.

The Starlite Ballroom, in Allendale Road, Greenford, will be turned into 39 apartments after permission was granted by Ealing planners.

Community campaigner Albertina McNeill, 49, has been leading a campaign to Save the Starlite and has concerns over the project.

She said: “Greenford is already a controlled parking area and these 39 flats will not help the matter. The plans include only 14 parking spaces so, even if not all of the flats are occupied, there will be major issues.”

Emma Nurse, 32, who lives nearby, is concerned about pressure the new flats will place on schools and doctors.

The mother-of-three said: “I faced a real struggle getting my eldest daughter into an appropriate school and had to go through an appeals process. You can often have a two-week wait for a doctor’s appointment and these things will only get worse.”

Planners, who have given permission for 73 secure cycle parking spaces, also say William Perkins Secondary School, which opened last year, will help ease the pressure on local schools.

There is also a provision for 10 of the flats to be rated as ‘affordable’, with £150,000 also slated to help provide affordable housing elsewhere in the area.

Save the Starlite have been holding demonstrations at the site and canvassing neighbours in a bid to save the venue as a part of Greenford’s music history.

The group is keen to use the musical heritage to increase business.

Mrs McNeill said: “We have lots of hotels in the area, but all of the tourists who stay in them go straight to Ealing Broadway and into central London.

“Thousands of people go to visit the crossing in Abbey Road, where the Beatles staged their famous album cover, but we are missing out on that in Ealing.”

The Starlite was first opened as an Odeon cinema in 1935, but in 1964 was reopened as a live music venue.

According to Save the Starlite, numerous bands and artists played there on their way to fame and the venue acted as a half-way house for rising artists.

Bowie, Pink Floyd and Cream all played there and, according to some, Stevie Wonder made an appearance in its heyday.

Save the Starlite says it will continue to oppose plans for demolition.