PLANS to revive a "vacant and rundown" 19th century hall in a small Furness village by creating a luxury 42-bedroom hotel have sparked concerns among neighbours.

One villager in Great Urswick has described the designs for Bankfield Hall as a "proposed monstrosity". Others say its size would be "out of keeping" and have voiced their fears about loss of privacy, noise and increased traffic on narrow, sometimes-congested country roads, with one woman predicting "chaos".

The "picturesque", stuccoed country house has been sitting vacant for at least 15 years since its last use as a guesthouse for BAE Systems, according to planning documents.

Now, a developer from Kingston-upon-Thames wants to give Bankfield Hall - and its overgrown grounds and kitchen garden - "a new lease of life" by restoring and transforming it into a hotel, complete with 12 woodland lodges, a glazed orangery-style function room, an extension with ground-floor restaurant and 20 bedrooms above, and two sedum-roofed annexes with six en-suite rooms each.

The venue would create 26 full-time and six part-time jobs, according to plans lodged with South Lakeland District Council by Ken Wilson, of Catalyst Corporate Development Ltd.

Nine neighbours from the 230-dwelling village of Great Urswick have so far raised objections or observations with planners.

"This proposed development is WAY too big for this area and the roads are too narrow," one woman wrote to SLDC. "There is already too much traffic going through the Urswicks [Great and Little], how nobody has been killed yet is a miracle.

"Bankfield Hall as a small hotel would be fine, but not as something that could possibly have at any one time over 200-plus people with their cars. Chaos."

One couple with small children said the plans - which have been drawn up by Cartmel-based John Coward Architects - would "double the population of Great Urswick" and the scale of the hotel was "completely out of sync".

They told planners they were concerned about being "woken in the small hours" after events such as weddings, by the sound of glass bottles crashing into outside bins that would be beneath their bedroom windows.

One man described the development as "totally out of keeping" and "utterly uncalled for"; while another wrote: "A hotel that size would destroy the village with chaotic road use on small country lanes."

A further resident said he supported the hall's renovation and creation of jobs, but the hotel "just seems too big to make sense for this village".

According to planning documents drawn up by John Coward Architects, the three-storey extension housing a restaurant and 20 bedrooms has been "carefully designed to ensure that it is respectful and subservient to the existing house".

It would be joined to Bankfield Hall by a glazed walkway.

The two new symmetrical annexes would have green sedum roofs, while the 12 woodland lodges would each have three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, utility room, dining room and living room opening onto an outdoor deck, with "semi-recessed hot tub".

A formal lawn is to be "brought back to life" to create an "immaculate foreground" to the 19th century house, and the unkempt grounds and old kitchen garden are to be restored. Bankfield House's stucco facade, now covered in "dense creeper", is to be stripped and repaired, with old sliding-sash windows renovated and the roof recovered and insulated with reclaimed slate.

SLDC has set a target date of September 13 to make a decision on the plans.