WORK should start next month on a £750,000 shopping and office complex in Bye Street, Ledbury.

Wellington Heath businessman Roger Allsop said final details of the development, on the site of an old timber building called The Depot, were being agreed with Herefordshire Council. The Depot was demolished last year.

Mr Allsop hopes to begin laying the foundations in April, with a view to completion around October.

He said: "We have interest from prospective tenants. When we have a firm start date, we'll start marketing the development which will be called Sear House."

Mr Allsop said that building work would take around six months to complete. There will be four shop units, with a central entrance, with office units above them.

The news has been welcomed by Peter Watts, Ledbury Town Council's chairman of planning, who said: "Anything must be an improvement on what was there before.

"This shows the town has vitality and people are willing to invest in it."

The Depot was probably part of a tannery dating, at least in parts, from the 17th Century.

For a decade, the ramshackle building, owned by Mr Allsop, had been leased by the Jenkins brothers as a base for their furniture and house removal business.

However, since the demolition last autumn, local concerns had grown that the flattened and partitioned site was turning into something of an eyesore.

Mr Allsop said he had been in talks with Ledbury in Bloom committee member Chris Clarke, with a view to getting a mural painted on the hoardings.

Most of the building work will take place behind the partitions and the hope is that John Masefield High School pupils will paint an eye- catching mural on the boards, in time for the Britain in Bloom judging day this summer.