A FORMER north Durham residential home once mooted as a hostel for asylum seekers may re-open.

Hustledown House, in Wear Road, Stanley, has been empty for six years. Residents say it is an eyesore and a magnet for anti-social behaviour.

It was once a home for 40 elderly people run by Durham County Council, but the authority closed it in 1992.

Now North-East company Gary Lewis Care has submitted plans to Derwentside District Council to reopen it as a retirement home.

The move has delighted residents, who have long campaigned for something to be done with the site.

Darren McMahon, board member of Stanley Green Corridor Partnership, the body set up to regenerate the area, said: "The building is an eyesore and a magnet for vandalism and graffiti.

"We will be pleased as punch if this plan comes off and that land is put to good use."

Council leader Alex Watson said: "It has been an eyesore for years. It is part of the gateway to Stanley and does nothing for people's first impressions."

Durham County Council closed Hustledown House 12 years ago, as part of a round of cost-cutting measures.

The building was then leased to the doomed Parity Trust, a charity set up to integrate disabled people into the community through the performing arts.

The county council kicked out the troubled trust in 1998, after it ran up rent arrears of more than £16,000.

Derwentside District Council made an offer on the building, but the county council declined and sold it on the open market.

Since then it has passed through the hands of several private firms and at one time was earmarked as a hostel for asylum seekers.

In a bad state of repair by the late Nineties, the building has further declined over the last six years.

This year it was rejected as a potential site for the new Stanley Health Centre for Derwentside Primary Care Trust.

And at one stage, the district council looked into issuing a Compulsory Purchase Order.

Coun Watson said: "It came under consideration for an order because we have always felt it was a very important building."

"We are over the moon about this latest development.