ANOTHER attempt is being made to give a new lease of life to a prominent Bedale building described as an eyesore by local people.

A planning officer said yesterday that a decision could be made within the next few weeks on an application by a Bedale-based financial consultancy to revitalise the former town hall building at 29 Market Place.

The former shoe shop and bakery, where the ground floor frontage is boarded up and has attracted graffiti vandals, was generally agreed to be the worst of the empty commercial properties causing concern in the town centre until a recent upturn in occupancies.

As Bedale tries to win money from the Government's single regeneration budget, Hambleton District Council has come under pressure to use its statutory powers to secure improvements to the privately owned listed building.

Last year the Bedale dental practice, which does not have enough space at its present premises in Sussex Street, submitted an application for change of use at the former town hall, where it would have occupied all three floors overlooking the market place.

Sale of the building to the practice depended on planning permission being granted, but the application was being dealt with by Hambleton when the practice pulled out because of the costs involved in refurbishing the property.

The latest application, posted on the building on Wednesday, involves altering but retaining the ground floor shop area and making office and storage accommodation on the second and third floors. An associated application for listed building consent has been submitted.

Maurice Cann, head of development control at Hambleton, said he could see no conflict with planning policies in the application, which would be dealt with by officers under delegated powers instead of going to committee.

Mr Cann said that, depending on the results of local consultations, a decision could be made within three weeks.

Coun John Weighell, Mayor of Bedale, said the application had still to be considered by the town council but added: "The council and everyone else is keen to see that property renovated and brought back into use.

"Everyone is getting more and more irate about the condition of the town centre where this building is slowly but surely getting worse.

"It is to be hoped that this latest application does not prove to be another false start."