BUILDING work on a retirement village close to the centre of Great Malvern is set to resume in later this year once a planning issue is resolved.

Development company Audley won planning permission back in 2012 to build the village on the site of the old Ellerslie girls' school, between Wells Road and Abbey Road.

This week, Kevin Shaw of Audley said that the firm now hoped to begin work in October.

He said: "After looking more closely at the main Ellerslie building, it became clear that our initial plans weren't practical and we have submitted revised plans.

"We're working closely with the planners and we very much hope that the new plans can be approved within eight to ten weeks. We've got our contracts signed with the builders and we very much hope to start building work in October. We'd be very disappointed not to do so.

"In the meantime we've been able to continue with demolition work in advance of the main building work."

Audley is planning a retirement village of 100 apartments, plus facilities including a pool, health club, restaurant and more.

Mr Shaw said: "We're hoping for some 20 months' build time, with the apartments ready for sale in the third quarter of 2017."

The site was for may years the girls' private school Ellerslie, which was subsequently taken over by Malvern College. However, the buildings have remained empty for several years.

The start of work on the site was delayed for several years as a number of problems were overcome, including the discovery of a bat colony on the site.

This was dealt with by the creation of a heated roost and tree boxes to enable the flying mammals to continue living on the site.

In January this year, Audley began work on demolishing some of the more modern buildings on the site, attracting attention with a large crane which was brought in to carry out some of the work.