Councillors are aiming to use a government grant to create new homes above a renovated toilet block.

The plan is to create affordable flats for first-time buyers.

The new homes would be built above the toilets in Bell Close, Keswick, which were taken over by the town council from Allerale council and are now run by a community asset company.

They were renovated and reopened last summer – but the work will not stop there.

Town and borough councillor Tony Lywood said: "The aim has always been to provide flats above the toilets."

It is hoped money from the Government's Community Housing Fund will pay for the ambitious scheme, which would be carried out by Keswick Community Housing Trust.

In last year’s Budget, the government announced a £60 million fund to support community-led housing developments in areas blighted by second homes to help them to fund more affordable housing for first time buyers.

Just before Christmas it was announced that this would happen through the creation of the Community Housing Fund.

The money is allocated between local authorities proportionate to the number of holiday homes in the local area and taking account of the affordability of housing to local people.

The funding included £772,554 for Allerdale, half received in January and the remainder to be paid once the authority has provided ‘evidence that the money is being spent in accordance with the objectives

outlined in the Budget announcement’.

Coun Lywood said: “We are hoping that the bulk of that money will come to Keswick as we are hardest-hit by a lack of affordable homes for locals.”

If the project goes ahead, it will be the second time public conveniences in the town have been converted into homes.

Toilets at Banks Court, off Station Street, were sold for a pound by Allerdale council in 2014 and Keswick Community Housing Trust, built four affordable homes on the site.