AN eyesore that has plagued Bingley for more than 20 years could finally be brought back into use as a retirement village.

Plans to turn the former Bingley Auction Mart site in Keighley Road, Bingley, into sheltered housing with 104 apartments have been submitted to Bradford Council.

If successful, the application, submitted by McCarthy and Stone Retirement Lifestyles and Yourlife Management Services, would see two new blocks of flats built on the site, with parking spaces and new landscaped gardens created.

The former cattle market has stood empty since 1995, and last year demolition work on the site was approved after the site had fallen into disrepair and had been vandalised.

Four planning applications for the site have been refused since 1999, most recent supermarket chain Lidl’s plan to build a new store on the site in 2016.

As well as providing a 104 new home, the new retirement village would provide other facilities, including a lounge, hobbies room restaurant, laundry room, 24-hour staffing, lifts, electric car charging points, and a site close to shops, services and public transport.

As well as sheltered housing, there will also be an Extra Care scheme, which includes providing care and one hot meal a day as part of the service charge, and specific design features.

In its planning statement, McCarthy and Stone said: “64 per cent of McCarthy & Stone’s residents said their health and well-being had improved since moving into the scheme.

“92 per cent said they were very happy or contented, and 83 per cent believed they maintained their independence.”

Each of the apartment buildings would be four storeys high, which McCarthy & Stone said “mirrors the mill buildings seen throughout the local area,” and the scheme has “taken ideas and features from the local area” in its design.

It added: “The proposal not only makes effective use of the land, but also provides specialised accommodation for older people which meets a local need and addresses the changing demographic profile of Bradford.”

Councillor John Pennington (Conservative, Bingley) welcomed the application.

He said: “The facilities they are wanting to build we have to welcome, as it is something we’ll all need one day.

“McCarthy and Stone are very good at what they do and are putting a plot of land near the city centre back into good use.

“There is a huge shortage of the facilities they are offering, and I’d definitely welcome it.”

McCarthy and Stone was established in 1963, and has built or is building more than 1,000 retirement homes across the UK, providing accommodation for more than 50,000 older people. Yourlife is the firm’s chosen managing agent for its sites.