A dilapidated former school in Huddersfield has been earmarked for housing.

Oakes Junior School in Lindley , latterly a care home, has stood empty for several years.

Kirklees Council has yet to receive a formal application for the site but the pre-application stage proposals by an as-yet unnamed developer are for residential development, which would involve the conversion of the former school building into an undisclosed number of units.

The developer, planning officers and councillors have toured the site to consider the proposals, which will be in three phases beginning with the refurbishment of Lindley Court.

Six houses are to be built on the former playground at the west end of the site on Wellington Street. There is also a proposal for on-site parking and for a new entrance off School Street West.

Local Lib Dem councillor Cahal Burke said members had been told that the existing building, including its tower, would be retained.

Clr Cahal Burke at the former Oakes School site which was latterly a nursing home, now disused.

He said: “There have been concerns from residents. The priority for the area is not the housing but the pressure on schools, GPs and dentists.

“It’s privately owned so the developer can do what he wants. It’s then up to the council to respond. But it is a good thing that this building is being brought back into use.”

Planning officers and councillors will be asked to look at land use, highways and parking, neighbour amenity, the quality, tenure and affordability of the accommodation and the heritage of the building, which is more than a century old and is Grade II listed.

The building, which also housed Wellington Court Residential Care Home and is privately-owned, was recently the focus of discussions over the use of live-in ‘guardians’ in Kirklees as a way of protecting and maintaining empty properties.

The former Oakes school and Wellington Court residential home on Wellington St, Oakes.

It was considered “a perfect example” of a building that could be put to good use through the guardianship scheme.

Dewsbury Museum, which was closed by Kirklees Council in 2016, currently uses live-in guardians in a partnership between the authority and London-based Ad Hoc Property Management to keep the building secure.

The council is said to be looking favourably at a plan by Dewsbury Park Mansion Community Hub to take over that site as an asset transfer.

Dating from the 1870s Oakes Council School (built as Lindley Infants’ Board School) closed in 1974 when it switched to a new site next to Lindley Infant School and became Lindley Junior School.

In 1987 the Victorian building became a nursing home, which shut in the 1990s. It later it reopened as Wellington Court Residential Care Home operated by Manchester-based Flowertouch Ltd.