COUNCILLORS have approved a lease for a parcel of land which will be used by the Bradley Lowery Foundation to build a holiday home for children with life limiting illnesses and their families.

Subject to the necessary planning consents, the property in Scarborough will be built on two storeys and have five bedrooms and a sensory garden with hot tub or sauna or pool.

The Bradley Lowery Foundation was set up by Bradley’s mum, Gemma, after the youngster died in July 2017 following a battle with neuroblastoma.

Scarborough was the last place Bradley, from Blackhall, County Durham, visited before he died, where he spent precious time with his family and met the then mayor of the Borough of Scarborough, Cllr Martin Smith, as part of Scarborough’s Armed Forces Day celebrations.

The foundation contacted the council to find an area of land that could be leased to them to enable the construction of a holiday home for children and families facing a similar situation to the one that they experienced with Bradley.

The council subsequently identified a 1.05 acres parcel of land, close to Scarborough’s North Bay, which had been formerly used as grazing land.

Scarborough Borough Council’s cabinet voted unanimously in favour of granting the lease to the foundation at nil value.

Cllr Helen Mallory, Scarborough Borough Council deputy leader, said: “We are so pleased to have taken the decision to grant the lease to the Bradley Lowery Foundation. Their ambitions for the holiday home are awe inspiring and my respect and admiration for Bradley’s mum Gemma, in particular, continue to grow. I look forward to seeing this amazing project get underway and, in due course, welcoming children and their families to Scarborough for an opportunity to make many wonderful holiday memories.”

The proposed lease conditions ensure that the land can be used only for charitable purposes.

Football mascot Bradley died aged six after the nation took him to their hearts when he struck up a friendship with then-Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe.