A local occupancy agreement should be attached to a proposed housing scheme at the former Alston Primary School, a meeting heard.
The application submitted by Amar Chabra, of Birchtree Developments Ltd, seeks permission for the creation of six new residential apartments.
It includes the demolition of the existing hall and the creation of two semi-detached houses and five new detached houses with associated parking areas and gardens.
Dhiran Vagdia, of Vagdia and Holmes Chartered Architects, said: “We are looking to bring the school back into use and develop (part of) it as a series of apartments.
“We are also proposing demolition of part of the newer part of the building.
“It is actually a 1970s/1980s construction, it is not of historic heritage value.
“It makes sense to bring that down and preserve the full elevation of the school and set up a couple of detached houses in place of the school hall.
“At the other end of the site, we are going to be putting in some new houses which are slightly bigger. What it means is that the site then has a very good variation of housing of different types to suit different people.” He said they had been working with the parish council for about a year. Last August, they had discussed other things that they could do there.
“There was talk about doing a community kitchen or community garden space. There was talk about a swimming pool, to try and get that to fit into the old Victorian building, and there was also talk about the possible use by almshouses charity and the local church,” said Mr Vagdia at a meeting of Alston Moor Parish Council held at Garrigill on Monday.
He said the developer was very open-minded, but at the moment the project had just defaulted to housing to keep it going and get the school building back.
“The field at the front will largely remain as is and that there is talk about how that could become a really rich community asset,” said Mr Vagdia.
A resident asked: “Regarding the sale of the houses, should permission be granted, will there be any covenant on them so they are available to local people only or are they going to be for sale on the open market?”
The architect said: “We have not discussed that actually, so if that is something which is important to the town then we will definitely have a look at it.”
Elaine Grew said: “In Alston I think residents are concerned about the number of second homes and holiday lets and therefore local people have not been able to get (housing).”
Parish councillor Alix Martin said the town needed more housing and affordable housing.
