Bleak House, which has blotted Ramsey’s Mooragh Promenade for years, looks set for a brighter future, if planners back a new application to develop it.

The house, formerly known as Peveril Court, is subject to planning application 22/01071/B.

Submitted by William Armstrong Limited, based at Mountain View Innovation Centre, Jurby Road, the application seeks to convert Bleak House into flats, with balconies added to the rear of the building.

It was only last week that the Examiner reported that the saga of Bleak House was finally being brought to an end as Ramsey Commissioners reached an agreement with its new owners that will see the authority recoup £20,000 of the £50,000 it paid out to prevent the property from falling further into dangerous disrepair.

As reported, at one point a widow was living alone in Bleak House without mains power. Jane Morris was a shareholder with her late husband Michael of the company that then owned the building.

She blamed his death from a heart attack on the stress he was under in his long-running battle to save, as she saw it, the property from demolition.