Businessman Trevor Hemmings fears plans to potentially bring a business with more than 250 jobs to Ramsey may have been thwarted.

Mr Hemmings had planned to demolish the former farmers’ combine warehouse on West Quay.

He revealed to Business News that he has been involved in 'promising’ negotiations with an online gaming company that has shown a keen interest in settling in the north of the island.

But late last week DEFA [the government’s Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture] unexpectedly handed over an order indicating that the derelict building has been placed on the Protected Buildings Register.

The notice was served on one of Mr Hemmings’s business interests, Shearwater Properties Limited,Water Street, Ramsey.

It says that ’with immediate effect the demolition, alteration or extension of the building is prohibited.’

Mr Hemmings, who has lived and worked in his beloved north of the island for many years, told Business News it was an ’utterly pointless and potentially disastrous’ decision.

He said: ’The building is simply not worth maintaining.’

He added that it is in a very poor state of repair and among many problems it has a vermin infestation.

The warehouse is next to the site of the former Barry Curran motors showroom.

Mr Hemmings said he has immediately sought legal advice since the order was suddenly served late last week and, as the owner of the building, through Shearwater, has to decide whether to take the matter to appeal. He has 21 days to decide.

He told Business News the whole matter was unnecessary and an appeal could prove to be costly for DEFA - and ultimately the public taxpayer.

Mr Hemmings revealed he recently had a run-in with planners over a wall near the former Grand Island Hotel.

He told Business News: ’I’ve worked all over the world but I have never come across as many obstacles as I have here in the Isle of Man.

’We need a wake-up call in this island.’

He said so-called comeovers with business interests were keen to back the island and he urged the authorities to ’roll with us.’

He and Kathryn Revitt, chief executive of his business interests, said it would appear from social media that the people of the north of the island were in favour of development on the site of the former farmers’ warehouse.

Among his business interests in the island is the Ramsey Park Hotel which has doubled its number of beds from 30 to 60.

Mr Hemmings once told Business News of his love of living in the north of the island. He said: ’I literally am one of those people who has worked in France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, all over, so you have to settle down sometime.

’So you settle where you feel safe. And the island reminds me of when I was a young man where neighb ours talked to neighbours. A place where you could do all those things you could do as a young man and I love the thought of having that available to me.

’The Manx people are lovely.’ Asked if he would ever considering retiring he said bluntly: ’No, what for?’

Mr Hemmings started his working life as a builder’s apprentice and is now one of the most successful business people in the British Isles.

In the last Sunday Times Rich List he was said to be worth £1 billion, a rise of £150 million on the previous year.

He has an empire that stretches from pubs to plant hire firms. And his Lancashire-based Northern Trust, has an estimated 8 million sq ft of industrial and business parks. He also owns Preston North End football club and is a racing enthusiast havingowned three Grand National winners .

He owns Ballaseyr Stud which is a purpose-built facility at Andreas.

Mr Hemmings first came to the island in the early 1950s on holidays - the UK’s ’Wakes Weeks’. Then he came back in the 1960s with various businesses.

A local source told Business News: ’The owner has done a lot of good for the island and has quietly supported many local charities. He’s a private man who lives the north of the island and as you know he employs many people.

’Development on brownfield sites and the regeneration of towns should be encouraged, not halted.’