PLANS have been unveiled to provide a new venue for conferences, weddings and other major events near Cardross.

An application to carry out works at Leabank House in Ardoch, just to the west of Dumbarton, has been lodged with Argyll and Bute Council.

The substantial Victorian villa, which has nine bedrooms, was put up for sale in mid-2015 after the death of one of the current owners, with an asking price in excess of £599,000 - but according to a supporting statement, "no reasonable offers" were made to buy the property.

That, however, changed recently when a company named Culter House Ltd made a bid to pruchase the house, surrounding stables and lodge house, along with a timber chalet and 3.5 hectares of parkland and woodland.

But that offer depends on whether the planning application receives approval from the council.

The planning application covers only Leabank House itself "and its immediate environs", along with a new vehicular access point and an area for car parking.

In the supporting statement, planning consultant R.T. Hutton says: "It is proposed that the house be used mainly as a conference centre, but that events such as weddings could also be accommodated to optimise the use of the facility and

maximise the benefits to the local economy.

"The applicants’ partners for this development have extensive experience of the conference market, and they consider that the ease of access to the Glasgow conurbation, and particularly proximity to the airport, make the site well located for such a facility."

The statement says the building could accommodate "an absolute maximum" of 125 people at any one time, and urges that planning permission be granted, even though Leabank is in the green belt, because of the economic benefits the building's conversion would bring to the area.

Mr Hutton goes on to say: "This planning application proposes a use which will bring people into the area, with a resultant benefit to the local economy.

"It will be achieved with minimum physical alteration, and will also ensure the long term maintenance of both the building and the estate."

Built in 1857 by a local industrialist, Leabank House was taken over by the Church of Scotland in the 1950s and used as a residential institution.

The present owners bought the property from the Kirk in 1992 and embarked on a programme of improvement to restore the building to much of its original condition after it became run down and in need of repair.

The application will be decided by the council's planning officers in due course; to read the supporting statement in full, along with all the publicly-available paperwork on the proposal, search Argyll and Bute Council's website using the application code 17/00541/PP.