A derelict historic Swadlincote church and hall are on the market for £500,000 after years of uncertainty over their future.

The fate of the former Swadlincote Methodist Church, also known as the Wesleyan Chapel, in West Street, has been up in the air for years and has now taken another turn.

Meanwhile, the former church hall to the rear, in Market Street, which used to be a school room, is also set for change.

Both sites take up pivotal locations in Swadlincote town centre and have been key regeneration targets – with the only fall-back being who can front the money to save them from dereliction.

Due to the cost of renovating the properties, both of which are well in excess of 100 years old, the buildings have been passed from owner to owner.

Now both properties are back on the market together for a combined total of nearly half a million pounds, through estate agent RentSellFast.com – more than double previous sale prices at auctions.

It has marketed the church for potential conversion into 10 to 12 apartments, with South Derbyshire District Council having approved plans to turn it into eight apartments in late 2019.

The former church hall has been marketed for conversion into five "impressive" town houses, which the district council had also previously approved in late 2019.

Planning permission for the church and church hall conversions will lapse in around a year and a half, by which point developers would need to reapply.

At the same time, a planning application from M Qasim has been submitted to the district council for the former church hall, with an aim to reopen it as an estate agents.

The application says the plan would create four jobs and "utilise the building to its best potential".

It says: "It is considered that the proposed scheme would enhance the area, bring back into use this derelict building and maintain its condition for the foreseeable future.

"The number of 'to let' signs in the town show an already oversupplied retail market.

"It is felt that a commercial property rather than residential or place of worship is most suited and would enhance the town centre, create more jobs and still be in line with the street scene."

The district council will decide the plans for the church hall in the next few months.

When council officers approved the church and church hall plans in November 2019, it was stressed that only a conversion away from community use would be profitable enough to save the historic buildings.

Officers were keen to retain the same exterior of the buildings as much as possible, to avoid changing their positive and important impact from the outside.

They begrudgingly agreed that this was at the expense of losing much of the historic character within the buildings themselves, including the organ, altar and pews.

The developer at the time, Paul Thomas, through SG Design Studio, said the redevelopment of the buildings would prevent Swadlincote from becoming "a ghost town at night".

Council officers detailed in 2019 that the chapel and church hall had been vacant for years before being sold at auction in 2017 for £200,000.

The buildings were promptly put back on the market but there was no interest in the site for three years to retain it for commercial use.

This led to approval for the flat and house plans.

However, both the former chapel and former church hall went back under the hammer in July last year. The chapel itself failed to sell but the church hall sold for £143,000.

The original church is believed to have been a chapel built by Wesleyan Methodists in 1816, which was subsequently enlarged in or around 1823, and further extended in 1837, then it was subsequently rebuilt in 1863.

The site also includes a small burial ground which planners believe contains 16 or 17 gravestones, with the number of burials even greater in number.