MORE retirement flats could be on the cards for Marlborough as developers have set their sights on converting a former builder’s yard.

Plans were submitted this week for a complex consisting of 28 apartments for pensioners with 24 parking spaces at The Old Yard on London Road.

Hampshire based company Renaissance Retirement Ltd wants to demolish the derelict buildings currently on the site and transform it into 22 two-bed and six one-bed luxury flats. They will form the part two-storey and part three-storey development on the 0.33ha site.

An exhibition of the plans was held in February for councillors and members of the public to give feedback. More than 40 local residents attended and of the 12 who filled in a questionnaire, eight were in support and one person objected, with the rest ticking the ‘unsure’ box.

The application reads: “The site has been vacant for a couple of years. The majority of the site is covered in hardstanding used previously for open storage of building materials and former storage buildings that are now in a dilapidated condition. Historically this was the site known as the Old Yard and was used as a building materials supplier.

“Whilst providing much needed homes suitable for needs of small elderly households, this in turn will enable existing under– occupied housing to be released, thereby providing wider benefits to the local housing stock.

“The feedback received on the proposals throughout the pre-application consultation has been positive.”

At the end of last year, planning permission was granted for a 64-bed care home and 28 assisted living units on the former Wiltshire Council depot site in Salisbury Road by developers Beechcroft.

Comments on the proposal can be made on Wiltshire Council’s website until July 23. Councillors are expected to make a decision on the plans by September 21.