By Sarah Newstead

Last updated 11:55, Friday, 04 July 2008

The landmark Skinburness Hotel could be demolished and a retirement village built in its place.

The Skinburness Hotel

The plan could see a complex of flats, bungalows and a care home if talks over the future of the 130-year-old hotel are successful.

The hotel has lain empty since 2006 when it was repossessed after former owners Adrian and Vanessa Moore, of South View, Evenwood, County Durham were declared bankrupt, with debts of more than £1.2 million.

At auction last December, System Cycle Ltd, a holding company for Team Valley-based development company, NorthStar Capital Projects, bought the hotel for £450,000.

The company, chaired by businessman and chairman of Darlington Football Club, George Houghton, are linked to care home providers, Executive Care Group.

The plan is believed to depend on a link with Chichester Hall – a residential home nearby caring for around 20 people.

But Chris Root, director of Lakeland Care Services that owns the Chichester Hall, said nothing was “concrete” and he had merely received an enquiry about the matter from NorthStar.

Danny Sharpe, development director of the Team Valley-based NorthStar, said: “It’s very much early days at the moment. We are not quite ready to commit to things yet – we will be looking at some form of extra care housing and a potential link to Chichester Hall.

“But that’s as far as any discussions have gone. We are in discussions with housing associations at the moment and will need another four to six weeks before we are in a position to talk more about it.”

Over 140 people attended a meeting last month at the Golf Hotel, Silloth, to discuss the site’s future.

No one from NorthStar attended.

Organiser Peter McRobert, chairman of the former Save the Skinburness Action Group, said residents were broadly supportive of the plan. “The overall feeling was that this is probably the best option we’ll get.

“It will bring employment and as somebody said at the meeting, at least our neighbours will be quiet.”

Vandals and lead thieves have stripped the dilapidated building since it was repossessed.

Mr McRobert added: “Everybody realises that we are going to be left with a falling down eyesore and it’s better to have something like this.”

The Skinburness Hotel was built by leading Cumbrian architect Charles Ferguson in 1878.

Bids to list the building with English Heritage failed twice. It lies just outside the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.