Westgate House, right, is to be demolished

An application has been submitted for a �15m scheme to replace the derelict Westgate House and Norwich Union House on Newcastle's Westgate Road.

Developer Westgate Road Newcastle Ltd's plans are for a commercial and residential development and it hopes to start demolition by the end of 2005.

Newcastle City Council said it had received the application.

Both the buildings have been empty for years. Last year George Ferguson, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, included Westgate House on an X-list of buildings to speed up their demolition.

'Architecturally stunning'

The city council's development control committee approved plans to demolish the building last year.

Westgate House is owned by regional development agency One NorthEast, which bought it so the site could be regenerated. Westgate Road Newcastle is part of the Centreland Group, which owns Norwich Union House.

Regional director Neil Adamson said: "This is a very difficult site and together with One NorthEast we now feel that we have a scheme that is commercially viable and that will contribute to the regeneration of the city centre."

The scheme includes 94 apartments and 10,000 sq ft of retail/leisure space.

One NorthEast chief executive Alan Clarke said: "The key to demolishing Westgate House has always been to have planning permission in place for the right, high quality scheme that must replace it in such an architecturally stunning area of Newcastle."