A bid to transform a historic Perthshire building into a community hub is being undermined by delays in acquiring the building, according to the group behind the project.
The trustees of the Ericht Trust who want to see the former Hill Primary School in Blairgowrie converted at a cost of £5 million say the council’s failure to debate their bid to buy the building has had a knock-on impact on grant applications.
They also claim the lack of progress is costing the trust money that could be better spent on their plans for a cinema, heritage and print museum, arts and crafts studio, play centre and caf.
“As you know, the Ericht Trust submitted an offer to buy the Hill Primary School from Perth and Kinross Council,” said trustee Dr Jessie Shaw in a message to supporters.
“The offer made is fully compliant with the council’s requirements and was made and received by the closing date for offers on June 10. We fully expected that bids would be considered at the property sub-committee meeting scheduled for August 19.
“This was cancelled due to lack of business and a special meeting was set up for September 9 to deal with bids for the Hill Primary School.”
Dr Shaw said the trustees were subsequently told that this meeting was also to be cancelled.
“On each occasion the reason given for cancellation was that the council needed further information from other bidders,” she said. “No further information has been sought from the Ericht Trust.
“Our lawyer will write to the council’s agent JLL Estate Agents and the convener of the property sub- committee to seek clarification on the ongoing delay and the original condition in the process that all bids must be compliant with the council’s requirements at the time they were made.
“These delays continue to incur costs to the trust. Our applications to major funders, in particular Heritage Lottery, have been postponed and our funding strategy will have to be revisited, as important deadlines were missed.”
A council spokesman said: “The council’s intention remains that a report regarding the former Hill Primary School site will be put to the property sub-committee at a date still to be confirmed. At this time, we are awaiting further clarification from bidders regarding proposals for the site.”