PLANS will soon be revealed for the future of the former Laneside care home site in Blackburn.

Council bosses say Great Places Housing Association is preparing to submit a planning application for new homes on the site, which was bought up using a compulsory purchase order by the local authority earlier this year,

The site has been left empty for over 10 years and is also in serious disrepair.

The empty building became a target for vandalism, fly tipping and anti-social behaviour.

Great Places aim to provide new build affordable family accommodation on the site following demolition of the current building.

The firm has undertaken a number of surveys at the site and have prepared a scheme layout which provides 16 new homes consisting of eight two-bed and eight three-bed homes for affordable rent.

Executive member for growth and development, Cllr Phil Riley, said: "Great Places Housing Association (GPHA) carried out a scoping exercise for the site and prepared a layout showing a deliverable housing scheme on the site.

"They secured affordable homes grant from Homes England and confirmed that they had finances in place to deliver the scheme.

"This level of certainty gave confidence to the Council in initiating the CPO.

"GPHA are now ready to submit a planning application for the site and carry out intrusive surveys to demolish the existing building in readiness for redevelopment.

"The proposed scheme meets the council’s aspiration and the borough’s housing need and the site is now being prepared to be sold to GPHA."

The Laneside building was formerly a care home for the elderly which was built around 1964.

Following de-commission of the care home, the land and building was sold to a private purchaser in September 2000.

Between 2000 and 2004 the building was converted into 19 self-contained apartments which were each sold to private purchasers.

Following some sporadic occupation of a small number of the individual apartments between October 2004 and February 2007, the building became empty again and has remained empty since.

The council’s empty property team worked with the owner to bring it back into use but with no success.

Blackburn with Darwen Council began the compulsory purchase order process on the old care home in Mill Hill, last year.

But the council met with opposition from the landowners Oriental Developments Limited and a public inquiry was held to determine whether the CPO could go ahead.

In April, government bosses ruled in the council’s favour following the inquiry, which heard evidence from the council’s empty properties project manager, Nicola Fox, planning manager Gavin Prescott and strategic development manager Subhan Ali.

Cllr Damian Talbot, whose Laneside ward it is in, said he was “absolutely over the moon” with the result.