AS every month passes by, the grand grade two listed building on the edge of Glusburn that, until 18 months ago, was the home of Malsis School gets just a little bit more run down.

Before it closed, the independent school came up with a plan to sell off some land for housing and to use the money to make urgent repairs to the building. English Heritage - keen to see the former Malsis Hall restored - withdrew objections to the housing, with the condition that money be poured into the former hall and regeneration of the estate for community use. Residents - including many who worked there - and the two parish councils were also in agreement, with one ward councillor noting it was the first time a large scale planning application had not received a single objection.

But planning permission came too late, legal agreements were never signed and the school - which had also attempted a merger with Giggleswick School - closed in December, 2014.

An attempt to buy the site and reopen it as a school by former pupils failed and it was eventually bought by brothers, also former pupils, who are part of a family construction company and were saddened by the closure of their old school.

The plan now in the making and to be shown to the public next week, is for 100 houses to be built in the grounds - double of what was originally agreed - and for the hall to become a "specialist care and rehabilitation facility". All attempts to see it as a school again have apparently been exhausted.

As a school, Malsis was a great source of local employment, its new use as a care facility - a residential home, perhaps - will also provide jobs for local people. But 100 houses is double what was originally agreed and what will that mean for the historical setting of the listed building? Is Malsis Hall in danger of being stranded in the middle of a housing estate and how far are the planners prepared to go to see such an historic asset preserved?