A DERELICT Sedbergh building described as an ‘eyesore’ and ‘a disgrace’ should be knocked down, according to a community campaigner.

Around 500 people have signed a petition led by Sedbergh resident Sandra Gold-Wood to force the owners of 35 to 37 Main Street to find a solution for the empty Grade II listed property.

Mrs Gold-Wood said: “It’s disgraceful that a building so visible on the Main Street has been left to wrack and ruin over the past ten years. I’ve seen rats, there’s dead pigeons inside and the windows are either smashed or covered in chicken wire, it’s in an unbelievable state.

“I don’t have an axe to grind but it’s about time the owners either did something with it, or it was knocked down.”

The 18th century, three-storey building is owned by Neil Udale of Morecambe, whose family used the ground floor as a butchers until the mid-1990s.

She suggests any space created by demolishing the building could be used as a car park on market days, or sold as land for a new build.

Baliol School teacher Peter Henderson, of Sedbergh, said: “It’s been like this for too long. It lowers the tone of the town. Everyone else is making an effort to keep their businesses looking nice and this just isn’t good enough.”

Planning laws mean that a Grade II listed building cannott be knocked down but Mrs Gold-Wood hopes to use the petition to lobby the Government into changing current planning laws.

“I’m hoping this case can be used to highlight that planning officials should consider the economic impact a building like this has on a town,” she said.

She will present the petition to MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale Tim Farron tomorrow for him to raise in the House of Commons.

Neil Udale, who runs Udale Speciality Foods in Morecambe, said: “The reason the building has fallen into disrepair is because it’s taken ten years to secure planning permission from the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

“We finally got this three months ago and work will start on improving the frontage of the building in January.

“It will then be put on the open market with commercial use on the ground floor and residential use on the upper floors.”