A NEWLY registered charity has submitted plans to Durham County Council to part-demolish and transform a Grade II* Listed building into private accommodation.

Windlestone Park Estate Preservation Trust, registered in March this year, is hoping to turn derelict former stately home, Windlestone Hall, into two and three bedroom apartments.

In a planning application submitted online, the trust outlines further plans to build 13 four and five bedroom homes on the site.

There are also hopes to restore the Old Stables, the Hall gardens, the walled garden, the clocktower and the clocktower stable courtyard.

A statement submitted with the application reads: “This application represents an excellent outcome for a site that had been considered beyond likely restoration.

“The scheme results in a sensitive and comprehensive restoration of regionally and nationally significant heritage assets.

“Including two Grade II* assets languishing on the Heritage at Risk Register, numerous additional Grade II buildings and structures in very poor states of repair, a Grade II registered park and garden and a Conservation Area also on the Heritage at Risk Register.

“The heritage benefits of the complete restoration of the estate alone are significant.

“However, this scheme goes further, it is not simply a restoration to alternative uses, it is a heritage led restoration of the entire estate to a working and sustainable country estate with one of County Durham’s grandest country houses at its centre as a restore private residence – the original Bonomi design intent.”

The once grandiose country mansion was acquired by the Carlauren Group in 2016, who later announced a multi-million pound makeover of Windlestone.

The group even sold 37 ‘luxury studio apartments’ to investors for sums totalling £6m, despite having no planning permission to make any alterations to the site.

However, no works were ever carried out by Carlauren and the estate has since fallen further into disrepair.

The condition of the building has deteriorated significantly over the last four years and it has since been damaged by extensive lead theft and vandalism.

The planning application reads: “The estate will be painstakingly restored, undoing decades of negative development, unconsented works by previous owners and enhancing and preserving a nationally significant collection of Grade II* and Grade II listed buildings and structures, in a Grade II registered park and garden.”

Since purchasing the hall and estate in July 2020, the Windlestone Park Estate Preservation Trust (WPEPT) has already carried out emergency works to make the roof watertight to prevent further decay.

The submitted plans will now be considered by Durham County Council and a decision is due to be made by Monday, March 1.

Members of the public have until Friday, December 25 to comment on the application.

To view it online visit: publicaccess.durham.gov.uk/online-applications/ and search for reference DM/20/03496/FPA