AN HISTORIC building and land surrounding it could be transformed to accommodate housing.

Plans to revamp Lochend Lodge, Dunbar, at the junction of Lochend Road and Spott Road, and to create four houses on land surrounding it are being weighed up by East Lothian Council.

Two separate applications – one to transform the existing building and the other utilising the surrounding ground – have been submitted to the local authority’s planning department for determination.

Edinburgh-based New Homes for Life, which is behind the proposals, outlined the need for attention to be given to Lochend Lodge.

A design statement said: “The lodge has been extended over the years in a haphazard manner and is now in need of a complete refurbishment and remodelling to make it suitable for modern living standards, to restore its appearance and to give it a viable life for the future.”

Lochend Lodge is the East Lodge of the former Lochend Estate.

Lochend House was built in 1684 but was subsequently largely destroyed by fire in 1859.

The developer plans to retain “the core historic lodge building” and remove later extensions, with a view to “restore a run-down and sub-standard two-bedroom house and provide a desirable three-bedroom modern house”.

The four new properties would be built to the south and west of the existing lodge.

Access to the new two-storey homes would come from Lochend Road.

The loss of trees on the site has been described as “unavoidable”, with each of the proposed new homes having four upstairs bedrooms, with a kitchen and sitting area downstairs.

The design statement said: “The proposed development will provide more housing in an established residential area.

“It will also allow the retention and renovation of the historic Lochend Lodge, which is in a rundown condition and would have been lost if the site had been redeveloped as flats as originally proposed.

“While the loss of trees is regrettable, it is considered that the impact of the proposals are generally positive and help to consolidate this corner of an established residential area, reducing the demand for new peripheral development.”