FIFTY new jobs could be created at Staveley Mill Yard as businessman David Brockbank pushes ahead with his vision for the historic industrial site, reports Rachel Kitchen.

Lake District planners have backed his plans for a major office building at the yard - and Mr Brockbank told the Gazette it would make the yard one of the biggest employment sites in the Lake District.

"We are talking to three potential tenants - it's a 20,000 square feet office.

We hope to have one principle tenant in it."

With around 190 people working at the Mill Yard in businesses ranging from Wilf's caf to the company behind the Peter Rabbit and Friends shops, Mr Brockbank hopes the new office will create around 50 more jobs.

He said several large organisations were hoping to relocate, but stay within the Lake District National Park.

He hopes to start work on the development as soon as a deal has been struck with a tenant.

The plans sparked some concerns among Over Staveley parish councillors, who felt the Mill Yard development was " getting bigger and more unsightly with each application that is lodged".

They felt the site was very visible from footpaths in surrounding countryside and the approach road to Staveley, adding: "This is hardly what would be expected in a conservation area." They called on the Lake District National Park Authority to secure "the best possible standard of design".

Development control committee members visited the site before approving the plans this week.

Team leader Norman Atkins told them: "Hopefully it will be a building that will echo the mill character of the existing development."

Mr Brockbank said the mill had 400 years of history in woollen fulling, making cotton reels and wooden tool handles and, in its heyday, had employed 90 people.

Responding to the parish council's concerns he said: "It's very difficult to create employment opportunities for people without building proper, modern buildings which they can be efficient in.

"It's always going to be a balance.

People have to decide, do they want full-time employment, or just keep it the way it is now."

Mr Brockbank previously had planning permission to build eight studio apartments at the yard.

He said luxury apartments at nearby Cowan Head were selling for £500,000, so he could have made £4 million if he had proceeded with the scheme.

However, he believed it was more important to try to create long-term, sustainable jobs, and to help create a more diverse economy that did not depend upon tourism and farming.

" I just believe it's the right philosophy for the village and the area that we should be creating these jobs, and this is the last site left in the national park to do it."