PLANS for four projects, totalling £24m, connected to the regeneration of an historic tourism site will be submitted to Durham County Council by Christmas.

If the schemes are given the go-ahead, it will not only result in Auckland Castle undergoing its biggest transformation in 300 years but also spark the economic revival of Bishop Auckland.

The applications include the £17m restoration of Auckland Castle, the creation of a £2.5m visitor welcome centre, the £3m transformation of the former Barclays Bank into an international Spanish art museum and a £1.5m development to turn the adjacent derelict building into a study centre for postgraduate art students.

Subject to planning approval, work will begin next year.

Philanthropist Jonathan Ruffer paid £15m to keep the Zurbaran paintings in the town and secure the future of Auckland Castle in 2012.

David Ronn, chief executive of the Auckland Castle Trust, the charitable group behind the developments, said: “Our aim in all this is to be a catalyst for the regeneration of Bishop Auckland and especially the historic and very fine Market Square at the northern end, linked historically both physically and through use with the castle and the Deer Park beyond.”

The work of the trust over the last two years has created 40 jobs – with 80 per cent of those employed living within 20 miles of the castle.

“Those numbers will grow,” Mr Ronn said. “As will the numbers of local contractors that we use who are nearly all drawn from the area. Already we employ the services of 100 local contractors and suppliers.

“We have been very active focussing our efforts beyond the castle walls and out into the Market Square of Bishop Auckland, once a place alive with activity and trade, surrounded by fine buildings which stand witness to the status and wealth of this former great coal mining town.

“We have planned and we have consulted with a range of local and national experts. We have also spoken to the community. We have actively consulted with 9,000 people this year about the plans and reacted to their feedback.”

Mr Ronn added: “If you set everything that we are intending to do alongside those places that we don’t own, such as Newgate Street, St Anne’s Church and the Town Hall, and you join them together, you can see the potential for the town and the important role that we have to play in its future.”

Further planning applications are expected to be made in the coming weeks for a £2.5m scheme to drill for geothermal energy to heat the palace and other buildings, the castle’s derelict 300-year-old walled garden and two former hotels.