A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build almost 70 new homes on the grounds of a historic landmark in Ulverston will get underway later this month.

After a decade of opposition, Charles Church Lancashire, a subsidiary of Persimmon Homes,will finally start work to turn Stone Cross Mansion into 19 self-contained apartments, with an additional 45 homes set to be built across the estate.

Councillor Colin Pickthall, who has previously condemned developers for failing to provide affordable housing as part of the development, is glad that the project is moving quickly with the first property set to be on the market early next year.

He said: "Now that they've got an agreement with the planners I hope it goes through as soon as possible with little disruption to neighbours.

"They looked a bit like army barracks to start off with but now they have turned them into little cul-de-sacs with plenty of trees and they've kept the old building in tact so we're not losing any of our heritage.

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"Nobody wanted to see the mansion fall into total disrepair and hopefully this whole project will add some pleasant housing to the town."

The Grade II listed mansion was bought in 1874 by Myles Kennedy, who made his fortunes by excavating iron from Furness mines.

It was then purchased in the 1950s by Lancashire County Council and used as a special needs school for almost 20 years before being bought by local firm Marl International, who used it as their headquarters until 2002.

However, since then it has been unused and has become dilapidated and vandalised over the last 14 years.

Mr Pickthall still thinks that there is a lack of affordable housing across the South Lakes and believes that this site could have been used to fill that void.

He added: "From my point of view, I would have preferred to see a higher percentage of affordable housing there but that is not what developers seem to do nowadays.

"South Lakeland is short of affordable housing and the council's planning authority has acknowledged that for some years.

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"The regulations say that if you build over eight houses on a patch, 35 per cent have got be affordable so developers usually try and make sure that they don't build more than eight to avoid this or they come up with all sorts of reasons as to why they shouldn't put them there.

"In some ways I regret is but now it's underway it's good and I just hope it's completed quickly and efficiently and that it can people moving in can be comfortable there."