Neighbours of a neglected Grade II listed building have called for the council to take action to rescue it ahead of a crunch meeting later this month.

Residents living near the Hermitage, in Upper Sutton Lane, Heston, have been concerned the 600-year-old house – left derelict since a fire in 2003 – will be destroyed if Hounslow Council does not intervene before it is too late.

The authority hopes to secure funding from London Mayor Boris Johnson as part of his plans to get empty homes back into use. Owner Gurmit Singh Bhullar has said he would like to convert it into a care home, reinstating many original features of what is believed to be the borough’s oldest building.

Meanwhile, the formerly thatched timber-framed cottage has continued to be battered by harsh winter conditions after a temporary roof was removed due to safety concerns.

Margaret Bull, of Camborne Way, Heston, has called for residents to write to the council and the London Mayor urging them to “preserve the Hermitage for future generations”.

She said: “The house is unlikely to last for more than 12 to 18 months without protection.”

Alan Keen, MP for Feltham and Heston, said Mr Bhullar would “never” be allowed to convert the Hermitage into a care home.

He said: “We certainly don’t want the council to give planning permission to anyone else to do anything nasty to it.

“I would like to see it kept and that’s what the residents want, and it’s my duty to support them.”

Councillors are due to discuss the Hermitage’s future at a Heston and Cranford area committee meeting on January 28.

Maggie Urquhart, historic conservation and urban design officer at Hounslow Council, said in a November 2009 report that the committee considered sketch proposals for the care home as “over-development”, and that similar plans in other parts of Hounslow had suffered “problems in principle”.

She said: “Justification for the planning use will be needed, as well as the listed building consent issues of setting, viability and conversion. This is because listing is in the national interest and listed buildings provide a real sense of uniqueness and identity to an area.”

• What do you think? Let us know by email (gholt@london.newsquest.co.uk), phone the newsdesk on 020 8744 4271 or leave a comment below.