A DERELICT eyesore in the heart of Newton Abbot is to be given a new lease of life after being snapped up for £90,000.

Huge plans, earmarked for an overgrown stretch of land in Wolborough Street, were unveiled this week.

The ugly site next to St Leonard’s Church has been blighting the town centre since the Raj Belash Indian restaurant was demolished nearly a decade ago.

But officers at Newton Abbot Town Council forked out £90,000 for the disused area with aspirations of drastically sprucing it up.

Funding for the purchase has been covered by the council without borrowing

cash or hiking up its precept.

It was revealed the recently-bought site, which was formerly the Turks’ Head pub and then the Rendezvous restaurant, will be used as a contractor’s compound while workmen carry out the town council’s Newton’s Place project.

The Newton’s Place scheme will see St Leonard’s Church converted into a £2m community space featuring council officers and a museum.

Cllr Mike Ryan, who is fronting the project, said: ‘Acquiring this land has long been an aspiration and I am delighted to say a deal has now been done.

‘Now we have the land, at the right price, it will serve as a contractor’s compound for Newton’s Place while we consider how best it can serve the town in the long term.’

Officers at the town council purchased the site from Lord of Newton Abbot Borough Keith Stokes-Smith.

He added: ‘I am so pleased to see the town council taking this step.

‘As founder of the Newton Abbot Civic Society it is not only the town’s heritage I hold dear to my heart but its future too. I wish everyone involved in this project great success as they take it forward.’

Work on St Leonard’s Church, which is being done by south west construction firm Pollard, is due to start ‘within weeks.