A wartime radar bunker in Dalby could become a home if planners side with the applicants.

The bunker was built in 1942 and formed part of the Chain Home system which protected the British Isles during the Second World War.

In the application (20/01058/B) submitted by Patricia Newton, on behalf of her client, who is not named, it is revealed that the proposal comes from a retired chartered building surveyor who has ’developed an interest in the history and preservation of the remaining Chain Home radar structures’.

Looking at a map of the British Isles produced in the early 1940s there were more than 120 of these radar sites around the UK forming a chain of detection.

In the Isle of Man four of these stations were built, one at Bride, one at Scarlett, one at Dalby and a later specialist system at Cregneash known as Chain Home Low which could detect low-flying aircraft which the other stations couldn’t.

Most of the UK’s stations have been lost to development, lack of care and attention being paid and in some cases even arson, but on the island, the former stations have survived and in a reasonable condition.

The focus of the application at Dalby, called the generator standby set house, is one of six buildings there. It is the biggest and best suited for residential conversion of the bunkers.

The design for the application includes the ’minimum of structural alterations and seeks to retain its character as a bunker’.

Its natural wild vegetation would also be maintained or even enhanced to ’continue to offer a sanctuary habitat to wildlife’.

The site also benefits from its close proximity (14m) to the Dalby treatment plant which will provide easy drainage from the bunker, with a water borehole and solar panels included in the plan.

Inside the bunker, the plans would see a living area, a bedroom, a study, a dining room, as well as a kitchen and bathroom facilities.

The site was photographed by Isle of Man Newspapers when the bunker was up for sale in 2013.