DEVELOPERS hoping to transform a former college site into digs for almost 400 students are seeking permission to overturn conditions which they say threaten the viability of the plan.

Councillors will vote next week on a change to the timescale for a major housing development for the former New College site at Nevilles Cross in Durham.

In July, Alumno Developments was given the go-ahead to create student digs on the site. However, the planning permission included a condition that Sheraton House, one of two boarded-up buildings on the site, should not be demolished until the conversion of the other, Neville House, had been “substantially completed”.

The condition was imposed to allay residents’ fears that were only one of the buildings converted, they would be indefinitely left with an eyesore on their doorstep.

The two buildings were completed in 1922 and originally formed the Nevilles Cross Teacher Training College, which eventually became the site of New College Durham before they fell vacant in 2002.

But developers are now going back to the council asking for the condition to be lifted because, they say, it puts the whole £20m scheme in jeopardy.

They argue that the condition could delay the scheme for up to a year, raising issues of commercial viability, and would have a negative impact on residents by prolonging construction work.

Among the stipulations of the current planning permission are that rear offshoots on Neville House must be demolished along with half of the re-roofing work and half of the facade repair, must be completed before work begins in earnest on Sheraton House.

Instead they want council permission to start knocking down Sheraton House once a contract has been agreed for the whole project.

However, residents fear this could lead to Neville House standing mothballed, extending the current eyesore that has blighted the area for more than a decade.

A total of 30 residents have written to the council objecting to the change because they fear developers could demolish and replace Sheraton House, but choose not to develop Neville House leaving it to deteriorate further.

They also express concern that there is an oversupply of student accommodation and the development may not be fully occupied.

A report to the committee says that developers Alumno claim that their legal advice is the condition may not be legally enforceable.

The developers also say the condition places “an unreasonable burden” on the construction contract.