A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE who failed to save a wallpaper factory is planning to build an executive housing estate on the site.

Lancashire businessman Trevor Hemmings, estimated to have a personal fortune of more than £500million, has submitted plans for 126 executive-style homes at Belgrave Mill, Darwen.

One of his firms, CWV, bought the Crown Wallcoverings Company last year after its American parent company, Imperial Home Decor, went into receivership.

Within weeks, CWV announced plans to shut the struggling Belgrave Mill site with the loss of 100 jobs. It offered some workers the chance to relocate and moved its head office into the area.

Today, the housing scheme was welcomed by a regeneration boss and Darwen MP Janet Anderson.

Jersey-based Mr Hemmings made his name as the boss of Lancashire-based Pontins and is a director of Preston North End. The plans were submitted through Northern Trust Company, a subsidiary of his Northern Trust Group, in Chorley.

Apartment buildings will face on to Bolton Road, with larger houses behind. Plans include 71 two-bedroom apartments, 12 townhouses and 43 three and four-bedroom detached and link-detached houses with gardens. The cost is estimated around £16million for demolition, decontamination and construction.

The man responsible for regenerating Blackburn and Darwen, Coun Andy Kay, said the deal was the best Darwen would get. He added: "In an ideal world we'd still have jobs on that site, but I don't think a phoenix would have ever have risen from the ashes of Crown.

"CWV has created a new head office in Shadsworth which has provided around 100 jobs. The topography of the site, along with the state of the buildings, means it would have been very hard to get another use for it.

"The building goes two or three storeys underground and all that will have to be removed before the houses can be built."

Northern Trust Company managing director, Gerry Hamilton, added: "We are excited at the prospect of introducing new housing to Darwen town centre and removing an empty building, which is beginning to become an eyesore and spoiling the town's beautiful setting."

The application will come before planning and highways committee in the next two months.

Mrs Anderson, who said in September 2003 that Mr Hemmings had given her an assurance that Belgrave Mills would continue operating, also welcomed the plan.

She said: "This development will make a real difference to the look and feel of the town centre, and with the plans for the new Academy and the regeneration proposals for the centre starting to come forward, Darwen will be an even better place to live."

Announcing the closure of Belgrave Mill, CWV said it had saved Crown but had to restructure it to ensure its survival.

Wraith Street, which runs up the side of Belgrave Mill, will be diverted to run through the new estate, with traffic lights installed at the new junction.