A FORMER primary school building in Cumnock could be demolished if a buyer isn't found for the property, council bosses have admitted.

The prospects for the former Greenmill Primary building came under the microscope during a meeting of East Ayrshire Council's cabinet this week.

The building was home to Greenmill Primary until 2020, when Greenmill merged with Barshare Primary and moved to the new Barony Campus to form Lochnorris Primary School.

The former Greenmill building then served as a temporary home for Netherthird Primary School after problems were discovered with the old Netherthird building's ceilings.

But the building, on Barrhill Road has lain empty since Netherthird's pupils and staff moved into their new home on Craigens Road in February.

During a discussion on a report about the potential futures for council-owned buildings, concerns were raised by councillors over what might happen if the building is left empty for too long without a future being determined.

The cabinet meeting on April 20 was told there have already been instances of damage to the building since Netherthird moved out.

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The historic building was also previously used by Cumnock Academy.

East Ayrshire Council's current plan is to market the building in its current condition, to see what interest there might be from buyers.

But if a buyer isn't found, a senior official told the cabinet's members, the building is likely to be demolished.

Councillor Jim McMahon (SNP, Cumnock and New Cumnock) asked how long the building would stay on the market for, pointing out that he wouldn't want it lying empty in the middle of Cumnock for too long.

Cllr McMahon said: "[In terms of] Greenmill, I know we're going to market that as well, but looking at the marketing timeframe and how long we're going to market it for - if it didn't sell within that, when would we move to demolition?

"I don't want a vandalised site sitting in the middle of Cumnock town centre."

Andrew Kennedy, head of facilities and property at EAC, said the building would have to be currently marketed in its current condition.

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He said: "In terms of Greenmill, it is in the conservation area, so we will have to do the marketing as is, first.

"We would want to keep that to a reasonable time scale, over the next couple of months until it gets to the point where we could look at a demolition if that was the case.

"As you say, we're already seeing some damage [to the building] over the last couple of weeks there, so we would want to progress that as quickly as possible.

"However, we will need to go through the proper process, just to ensure we're able to take that decision when we can."

If the building was to be demolished, the plan would then be for the council to put the empty site up for sale.