AN HISTORIC building hit by vandals and drug users should be turned into a hotel, say Leader readers.

The former headquarters of the John Summers and Sons Steelworks in Shotton is covered in graffiti and littered with drug paraphernalia and rubbish.

More than £30,000 has been spent trying to protect the five-storey listed building since May.

The Leader has been inundated with ideas on what the derelict building could be transformed into.

One Connah’s Quay reader said: “I was so sad to read the building is now in a state of disrepair and is being used for drug dealing and other unlawful goings on.

“Like many other youngsters, I went to work there 45 years ago straight from school and remember the grand staircases and beautiful furnishings of the ‘bosses’ rooms upstairs and the feeling of awe if I was sent up with a message.

“I think we should turn it into a hotel. The position is perfect by the riverside and the railway station, with close access to the A55.

“I’m not the only one who would be happy to see this lovely old building have a new lease of life. It would be a tribute to the prosperous steelmaking days of yesteryear.”

Landowners Pochin Goodman paid £5m for the 200 acres of surplus Corus land in June but have yet to develop it.

Agents Legat Owen forked out £35,000 in two months to secure the site, including boarding up windows and installing palisade fencing.

Former employee Graham Crewe thinks the building would make a good museum.

He said: “I worked at the steelworks for well over 30 years. During this time I travelled past this beautiful building daily and I was most upset to find how it is now being treated.

“It has stood on the banks of the Dee for almost a hundred years and I feel it must be preserved by the county or some official body as a museum or a learning centre.”

Email your ideas to lois.hough@nwn.co.uk.