GUIDELINES have been agreed to help safeguard one of Hartlepool's historic buildings.

Tunstall Court, a large house and grounds near Ward Jackson Park, closed last year after a number of years as a Hartlepool Borough Council training centre.

The house was the home of the Furness shipbuilding family during the late-19th and early-20th Centuries.

The council agreed last year to sell the building and most of its grounds, and earlier this week, the cabinet gave the go-ahead for Tunstall Court to be put up for sale - with guidelines in place to safeguard its future.

Acceptable uses of the house would be residential accommodation, a high-quality hotel and conference centre, offices or a leisure club.

Uses which will not be permitted include pubs or licensed clubs, and activity which would create a lot of traffic.

The guidelines will also include measures to protect the open and wooded character of the grounds.

The council will market the property over the spring.