A PLANNING application has been submitted to carry out major repairs to part of the Tottenham House estate, near Marlborough.

And former owner Lord Cardigan says he still dreams the 100-room mansion in Savernake Forest will become a hotel.

The application has been made by Rural Solutions to make "essential urgent repairs" to the dilapidated stable block adjacent to historic estate, which is thought to have been bought by multi-millionaire property developer Jamie Ritblat for £11.5m in 2014.

However, it has not yet been revealed what the rest of the plans are for Tottenham House, which was built by the 1st Marquess of Ailesbury, in 1820 and was later leased by the former Hawtrey’s Boys’ Preparatory School and Amber Foundation charity.

A Rural Solutions spokesman said: “At the moment we can confirm that we are only planning on doing essential urgent repairs to the stable block.

“We are making detailed surveys of the house and landscape and we expect to be submitting applications for repairs and any future uses later in 2016. We are unable to comment further at this stage.”

Since 2002, plans have been bubbling for it to become a lavish hotel and golfing centre. In 2010 we reported that Laurence Davies, chairman of Golf Club Investment Holdings, the American company behind the project, said it would still be going ahead despite the recession and costs doubling to £135m.

And a website created for the proposed 200-bedroom luxury complex, complete with golf gold course, conference centre and spa, stated it was to open in 2015 and would be called The Savernake Club, but the hotel plans never materialised.

Despite Lord Cardigan, 63, failing in a Court of Appeal battle over the sale of the ancestral home in 2014, he still hopes it will become a luxury hotel. He said: “I spent 14 years trying to get a major luxury hotelier to take it on, and when I finally did I was blocked by the trustees who I have had some success getting rid of. I still dream of it being a hotel.”