PLANS to build homes on the Burnley College site will see the landmark building in Ormerod Road retained, developers have told the borough council.

The remaining college buildings will make way for townhouses, on the border of Thompson Park, say agents for Ribble Industrial Estates, the firm behind the proposals.

Work is continuing apace on the college's new campus building, off Princess Way, which is expected to be completed and occupied by September 2009.

The £81million project, which will include an outpost for the University of Central Lancashire, has been backed by the Northwest Development Agency.

Forty-seven apartments will be created through the conversion of the existing college building, say agents acting for Preston-based Ribble.

These will include two studio flats, 23 with one bedroom, another 19 with two bedrooms, one three-bedroom apartment and two four-bedroom units.

And another 42 new homes following the demolition of the buildings to the north-west of the site.

In the main these will be a mix of two, three and four bedroom two and three-storey townhouses, according to the blueprints lodged with planners.

An eight-metre wide strip will be left between the old college site and the River Brun, as public open space, while a new pedestrian link to Thompson park is envisaged.

Joanne Smith, agent for the plans, says: "The internal works overall provide a sympathetic and appropriate use to a listed building. Residential is the most appropriate and viable reuse of the building.

"The proposed works are desirable and necessary to create residential apartments.

"The scheme has been carefully developed to achieve minimum intervention, while maintaining the character and appearance of the building when viewed from inside and outside."

The college building, which is grade II listed, dates back to 1905 and was constructed in a free Jacobean style.

While the external façade and the railings will be retained, slight modifications are expected to make the building fully complaint with disabled access legislation.

Developers say that they are prepared to negotiate with the local authority over how much provision is made for afforadable housing as part of the scheme.

Because the townhouses part of the scheme is on land which is part of a recognised flood plain, there will be no habitable rooms at ground floor level, say Ribble officials.