A REPORT highlighting potentially-lucrative uses for the site of a troubled training school for Catholic priests, has been published.
Ushaw College, which lies on the outskirts of Durham City, is planning to sell some of its buildings to developers, to set up a hotel and 18-hole golf course.
Before any interested parties can make a bid for the site, councillors at Derwentside District Council will have to consult a development brief, which is to be published this week.
The brief acts as a marketing tool to tell potential buyers what would be acceptable on the site. It goes before planners at the council on Thursday.
Senior clergymen at the college, which dates from 1804, decided to put part of the site up for sale in the face of dwindling student numbers, and crippling financial restraints.
The funds generated will be used to refurbish buildings and pay for the college's expansion into teaching both men and women lay people.
Proposals include turning the Junior House, used as a school for Catholic pupils until 1972, into a 40-bedroom hotel.
This will be closely linked to an 18-hole golf course and club house on the site of a former nine-hole course, which has not been used since the 1950s.
College bursar, Peter Seed, said: "The important date for us is November 9 when it goes before the council and they approve it or otherwise.
"If they support this, we can start to look at who might operate the hotel and golf course.
"The college was built and expanded towards catering for 400 students and we are now down to about 40, but we are using the same Grade II listed buildings.
"We are trying to react to this situation and hope to use the money to refurbish our buildings and expand into lay teaching."
The area covered by the brief comprises 142 hectares of land, with the college land to be kept for teaching covering 13.7 hectares.
Peter Reynolds, head of planning services at the council, said: "It is a large and important site and we will have to entertain planning applications soon. That is when everyone will have plenty of time to have their say.
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