Work on a 650-home development on Workington's former steelworks site looks set to begin within weeks.

Developer Persimmon Homes is going through the final stages of securing planning permission to build the first 250 houses of its 650-home development.

It plans to start work to clean up the former Corus Rail site, in Mossbay, in the coming weeks. The site closed in 2007 and the buildings were demolished.

The developer already has outline permission from Allerdale council to build two, three and four-bedroom houses and two-bedroom flats on the 20-acre site.

The news of work starting comes eight years after plans to develop the site were first lodged.

Community leaders have welcomed the progress.

Town and borough councillor Carole Armstrong said: "It'll be absolutely awesome to see that start to take place.

"If it reaches fruition it'll be fantastic because it needs tidied up. It's a long time coming.

"At the minute it's just wasteland and a lot of people are talking about when it's going to begin because they want to go down there."

Fellow councillor Barbara Cannon added: "We've waited a long time for this development to take place so it's great to hear that they're actually going to begin.

"I look forward to hearing more details of the proposals."

A Persimmon spokesman said there would be several weeks of remediation and enabling works before the houses can be started but the first homes are expected to be occupied in about a year.

The site has been vacant since the steelworks closed in 2006.

The buildings were demolished in 2008 and the site was partially cleared after that.

Eatonfield Developments Limited was originally granted planning permission for an £80 million seaside community in 2008, but the firm went into liquidation in 2011.

Persimmon then took over the outline plans.