Campaigning residents who fought to save a dilapidated villa in Heaton have praised developers who have brought it back to life.

During an 18-month battle to bring Emmfield Villas in Emm Lane back into use, Bradford Council – lobbied by villagers – got the go ahead for a compulsory purchase on the property.

The property’s plight had been highlighted as part of the Telegraph & Argus’s Save Our Green Spaces campaign seeking to encourage the re-use of brownfield sites for new housing developments, rather than targeting green fields.

A public inquiry had to be held first into the Council’s compulsory purchase application to force the villa’s previous owner into selling it, but just one month after it was approved a Shipley -based firm of developers snapped it up for an undisclosed sum, with plans to turn it into student accommodation.

The news delighted villagers who had long condemned the villa as an eyesore and over the past two months they have been watching work progress in transforming the late-Victorian building.

Resident Margaret Binns-Hall said: “It’s absolutely marvellous what they’ve done. It was in a terrible state before but it’s completely transformed now.

“They’ve done a lovely job, it’s been a fight but it’s made those 18 months of campaigning worthwhile.”

Brothers Zamir and Shakeel Hussain, who own Castle Residential Properties, said it had been “a super quick” project and should be completed by December this year.

The first phase of creating 21 rooms will be ready for September with ten more rooms in phase two finished for October. The final stage will be to create five or six rooms on the lower ground floor, with facilities for people with disabilities.

The developers are aiming the rooms at students from the nearby University of Bradford’s School of Management on Emm Lane.

Zam Hussain said: “The key to it all has been in the planning. So many people have pulled together to make it happen.

“It’s been a super-quick project and we’re happy villagers are happy with what we’ve been doing and how we’ve spent our money.”

The building has been sand-blasted, scaffolding will soon be coming down, the gardens are being landscaped and a car park will be added soon.

Inside, the brothers have managed to keep a stained-glass window, a solid oak staircase and a wooden-panelled side entrance.

“Everything else had to go, it was such a mess inside, it just needed gutting. We’re looking forward to welcoming its new residents,” said Mr Hussain.