THE owner of the Kingsmeadows estate this week revealed that he wants to build an apartment block containing 12 flats alongside the historic mansion house.

Alan Mawer told the Peeblesshire News he has submitted the fresh proposals to the planning department of Scottish Borders Council.

The council has already given approval for his project to turn parts of the house itself into 12 apartments.

“We have no intention of spoiling this beautiful estate - we know what it means to the people of Peebles - but we need to build these extra flats to make the project viable,” he said.

The proposal is to build a new block of flats in a display area adjoining the house - and use approximately one and a half acres of the 17.5 acre site.

“The 12 new apartments will be similar to the ones we are putting in the house - they will be well-designed and in sympathy with everything else we are doing here. No protected trees will be affected,” said Mr Mawer.

He stressed that the remainder of the estate will remain untouched - and is taking steps to ensure that any future buyers of the estate will not be able to build houses on the land.

“We are getting solicitors to draw up covenants to try to safeguard the estate from future developers - and I can honestly say that we have no plans for the rest of the estate,” he said.

“My architect’s brief is to ensure the buildings will still have Listed status in 250 years’ time.

“Some of the trees in the estate are around 200-250 years old - and if you go down to the woods parts of it are Jurassic as nobody has been down there for some time. We have been spending a lot of money on tree surgeons and as we understand how important it is to preserve them.” Work is already underway to turn the house into 12 apartments of one, two and three bedrooms and an open weekend is taking place tomorrow and Sunday (10am-4pm each day).

Members of the public will be able to view a show flat within the mansion house and stroll around the impressive estate at their leisure.

Mr Mawer revealed that he grasped the opportunity to buy the estate last October after a visit to the dentist at nearby Cavalry Park.

The mansion house, built in 1795, and its estate was owned by pensions giant Standard Life and used by the company’s employees as a holiday retreat until around 2011.

“I noticed the for sale sign was still up even though the closing date was supposed to be July 4,” said Mr Mawer. “When I contacted the estate agent Savill’s they told me I had three or four days to make a bid.

“I quickly made the decision to go for it - and the rest is history. I’ll get a good idea of whether I did the right thing by the number of people who attend our open weekend this Saturday and Sunday.”