Plan to protect surrounding park when house is sold

Part of the sale contract includes a plan to "preserve the park setting... for years to come"

Measures to preserve parkland surrounding a historic mansion which has been put for auction have been added to the conditions of sale.

The Grade II listed Pounds House in Central Park was put up for sale by Plymouth City Council (PCC) in April as it said it could not identify a use for the building.

The council said part of the sale contract included a planting plan which would "preserve the park setting" of the property "for years to come".

Councillor Chris Penberthy, cabinet member responsible for assets, said although the council had tried to find alternative uses for the building - it had to "make difficult decisions".

He said: "This building has been empty for years, we do not have a use for it, it has cost nearly £500,000 in maintenance and insurance over the last five years.

"It makes sense to give the opportunity to someone to do something wonderful with it."

The council said the house, gardens and associated land was about a third of a hectare - of which some was planted with trees, shrubs and borders, and the remainder was car parking and a driveway to the house.

It added that a further 0.014 of a hectare had been fenced off "for some time" to protect against falling masonry, meaning about 0.054 of a hector was currently publicly accessible open parkland.

PCC said its sale would mark "the end of spending ongoing costs" after it had spent £490,787 in the past five years on repairs.

The council said the land was designated as a Strategic Green Space Site as part of the Joint Local Plan and that there were tree preservation orders on four trees close to the building - including a Yew, Cyprus, two Cherry trees and six distinct groups of trees.

Online bidding for the building, which dates back to 1825 and has sat empty since 2017, is set to take place between Tuesday 28 and Thursday 30 October.