Derbyhaven residents have written to Tynwald members urging them to oppose plans to build flats on Langness.

They describe the proposed development for the site of the derelict Castletown Golf Links Hotel as a ’grave threat to a precious natural asset’.

Dandara’s Fort Island Developments Limited first submitted plans (17/01265/B) in December 2017 to build a 40-bedroom hotel and 40 luxury apartments on the site.

Revised plans were lodged in October last year which included changes to the layout of parking and arrangements for surface water.

Planners say they are trying to source consultants to assess the viability of the scheme before making a ’robust’ recommendation to the committee.

Derbyhaven Residents’ Society say they would support a hotel building of ’an appropriate size and character’. But Dandara say that a residential development is the only way for the commercial case for a hotel to stack up.

The Area Plan for the South states proposals for redevelopment or re-use of the site will not be permitted unless it can be demonstrated that hotel use is no longer commercially viable.

In a letter to Tynwald members, Derbyhaven Residents’ Society chairman Tim Cullen said: ’I am writing to you and all your Tynwald colleagues to ask you to consider the grave threat currently being posed to one of the island’s most precious natural assets: Langness.’

He said Dandara’s application has attracted many objections from individuals and organisations all over the island including Friends of the Earth who described the proposed building as a ’brutalist mass of concreteâ?¦unsympathetic to this area of exceptional conservation value’.

Mr Cullen urged Tynwald members to reconsider the brownfield designation which he said was an ’anachronism’.

He said the harm caused by such a building would extend beyond its sheer bulk and could have a potential impact on dark skies, the cleanliness of Derbyhaven Bay and its importance to migratory birds.