THE former Ardenlea Marie Curie Cancer Hospice in Queens Drive, Ilkley, will be turned into nine flats if planning permission is granted.

The hospice, which was closed last year, transferred its operations to a new centre which opened in Bradford in September.

The charity, Marie Curie Cancer Care, had forked out £5.2 million for the new centre and hoped to recoup some of the costs by selling Ardenlea. Now a Wakefield-based company, Wainwright Estates Ltd, wants to convert the building into nine apartments.

The plan will involve removing seven cypress trees from the front of the building and knocking down the 'unsightly' lift tower.

In a letter sent to Ilkley planning office, the company says: "A building of the calibre of Ardenlea, which is set in very fine grounds, requires not only a very sensitive scheme for its re-use but also for on going maintenance."

Ardenlea was designed by architects T C Hope and Son, of Bradford, and was built in 1881 as a family home for a rich businessman. After his death it was bought to use as the Railwayman's Convalescent Home for former railway employees.

In 1962, the building became part of the Marie Curie Memorial Foundation and after extensive refurbishment opened as the Ardenlea nursing home.

The conversion scheme has not yet been discussed by Ilkley's parish council planning committee but it is thought that an accompanying plan by the same developer to construct two new detached houses in the grounds of the building could lead to local attempts to have it rejected.