Development plans for a Soldiers Hill pub have been knocked back by the Ballarat City Council. The proposal to build a two-storey, 23-room motel next to the North Britain Hotel was unanimously rejected by the council at its ordinary meeting last week.

The decision was made despite an officer's report which recommended its approval subject to 32 conditions.

A single-storey building on that site would have been demolished to make way for the motel, while some of the hotel land would have been used. The pub's owner and applicant Peter Burton said the plan was designed to secure the future of what he described as "a family pub".