THERE have been calls to return the former Liberal Club in Darwen to its former glory.

The club, on the corner of Blackburn Road and Falcon Avenue, has been vacant since 2011, with an application to knock it down refused last year.

Local resident Harold Heys said: “The club, once one of the finest houses in Darwen, has become a derelict dump.

“It’s time the place was stirred up.”

Earcroft councillor Stephanie Brookfield has also been vocal of the need for a new use for the site, telling the Lancashire Telegraph: “The Liberal Club is an iconic old building has fallen into disrepair and has been vandalised.”

Built in the mid-19th century as a domestic villa, the club went on to become the Darwen Masonic Lodge and then the Liberal Club.

Last year, a report by Mortimers Chartered Building Surveyors, submitted alongside plans to build a nursery on the site, said demolition was the only feasible option for the building.

Chartered surveyor Chris O’Flaherty had said: “The building has been vacant since 2011 with attempts to find a new owner who is willing to re-use it proving fruitless.”

Liberal Democrat leader of Blackburn with Darwen, Cllr David Foster, said the club had lost its connection to the party and was a Liberal club ‘in name only’ for the past few decades.

He said: “I do feel sad, though, because my grandfather was the president of the Lancashire Association of Liberal Clubs in the 1930s, back when we had about four of them in Darwen.”

The Lancashire Telegraph understands the site is owned by Karl Baxter, from Hampshire Helmn estate agents in Darwen.

It is not known whether any forthcoming plans from owner Karl Baxter would involved knocking the historic building down, or refurbishing it.

Last year, Mr Baxter applied for permission to build a large children’s nursery early last year but it was turned down.

The council said the plans were refused because they would have had a detrimental impact on local residents, and said insufficient information was given about noise.

There was not enough car parking spaces planned either, the council said.

Mr Baxter was unavailable for comment yesterday.