The new leader of Carlisle city council remains “optimistic” that the derelict Central Plaza site can be brought back into use.

The crumbling Grade II-listed building in the city centre has proved a major headache for the council, with the authority forced to intervene on public safety grounds even though it does not own the building.

But coun John Mallinson insisted there was “light at the end of the tunnel” and  reassured members of the Economic Growth Scrutiny Panel that at least one developer was still interested in the site.

The authority has already carried out a partial demolition of the city landmark, with the new leadership pledging to contunie with the work and to fulfil their obligations to keep the building safe.

But coun Mallinson also stressed that there was a “limit” to what the council could do to maintain and restore the building because it does not belong to them.

He added: “I don’t wish to give people false hope, but we do have a developer that has been interested in the site for some time and they have visited it and are doing their calculations.

“We are optimistic we can bring some closure to this, but we don’t really know what is salvageable – and even whether the building itself is at all salvageable is open to speculation.”

But the new council leadership and officers faced robust questioning from Independent councillor Robert Betton.

He insisted that the leadership should be able to answer “one way or the other” whether Central Plaza was going to be built back up again or pulled down.

But Mr Mallinson stressed that this was a “very difficult issue” and that the council had found itself in this position “through no fault of its own”.

He said: “It is in nobody’s interest to leave it as it us and the bottom line I we are doing our best as our predecessors have done. There are no magic answers, but we are doing our best.“

Heritage specialists have been drafted in to carry our surveys of the building and the meeting heard that demolition had been undertaken in such a way it could be reinstated in the future.

Garry Legg, the council’s Investment and Policy Manager, said that dismantled materials from the fabric of the building were in storage to “keep that option on the table.”

Mr Legg also told the meeting that any money spent on urgent work has been registered as a charge against the land, allowing the council to claw back some of its expenditure from any future owner.

The building was once a prime location for visitors to the city but after shutting in 2004, was abandoned and is now ownerless.

As a result, the hotel is subject to an unusual legal process called escheat.

This means the title to the land is held by the Crown Estate, but it is not responsible for its upkeep.

The building was in such a dangerous state, Victoria Viaduct had to be closed to both cars and pedestrians for weeks during May and June 2017.