A derelict listed building, which for years has been creating problems for a Huddersfield golf club, could be converted into luxury homes.

The 200-year-old Grade II barn, on land owned by Meltham Golf Club, has been targeted by thieves and vandals and has fallen deeper into disrepair.

The club has been trying unsuccessfully to sell the Headyfields building for seven years.

But now the club has submitted a planning application to Kirklees Council to convert the building into four houses.

Under the proposal, the barn off Wilshaw Road, will be transformed into two three-bedroom houses and two four-bedroom three-storey homes with master bedrooms and bathroom suites.

The plan also includes 13 parking spaces and an access road.

Maintenance of the building, which looks like a large stone barn but was actually two weavers cottages with attached small barns, has become expensive.

The club had attempted to have the building de-listed to allow more ways in which it could be converted – but the request was rejected by English Heritage.

Clayton West-based architect Alyson Ronan, who has drafted the plans for the club, said: “Meltham Golf Club have long accepted that it is not acceptable to leave the building in its current state, as this would eventually generate an enforcement notice requiring the repair of the building. They want to be proactive in this matter, rather than reactive.

“They have explored many alternative uses of the building and have tried to get approval on numerous occasions, but none have been successful…

“It has been demonstrated that in order to save the building, it must be brought back into use, because it is not economically viable to continually repair the building.

“Converting the building to dwellings will have the least impact on the existing building, considering that the building already has four distinct areas, two of which were originally dwellings.

“It is proposed that the building is converted to four dwelling with small gardens to the rear and parking, and this will guarantee the survival and continued use of the building.”

A public consultation on the plan ends on March 9.

The Headyfields property was originally part of Joseph Green-Armytage’s Thick Hollins Hall estate, named after the original holly groves on the site.

Following the establishment of the golf course in 1908, the building was occupied by the head greenkeeper until the First World War.

Since 1933, it has been used to store machinery.