TOWN mayor Jan French says her plans to convert a disused factory into four flats will provide “a group of simple homes in an area of family homes”.

Cllr French, the mayor of March and Cabinet member for planning improvements at Fenland Council, says that apart from a three month period the building has stood empty since 2008.

“This is making best use of existing resources,” her agent says in a statement accompany the application.

The building near to her Woodville Drive home would provide “generously proportioned homes” next to a “vigorous and viable church and a gastro pub, Cobblestones”. It also cites proximity to Tesco and Alpine gym as advantages as well as within walking distance “to a significant volume of local jobs both skilled and unskilled.”

The application, in the joint names of Cllr French and her husband Mick, also points out that a private contractor would be paid to collect domestic waste.

Although Fenland Council’s refuse wagons pass by on Wisbech Road “it is thought to be unsatisfactory to bring up to eight bins from the site to the highway.

“Since the occupiers will have to be part collective responsibility for their forecourt and a share of the private road maintenance it is practical to provide for a private contractor to collect domestic waste - just the same as the former commercial waste was collected.”

The application says the building was previously used as a specialist foreign car repair and renovation workshop.

It had been mainly used as a workshop for American cars but “global changes” in the location of volume of American military customers meant “demand for this type of workshop has declined to a point where the retirement from the trade was the only practical option for the applicant”.