A DUMFRIES nursery which currently occupies a council building will likely be offered the opportunity to take ownership of the property.
Playworks Nursery operates from the first floor of 1-3 George Street, while trade unions have offices on the ground floor.
However, Dumfries and Galloway Council has deemed the building surplus to its requirements and is now pushing to change ownership by putting the building up for sale.
The trade unions are being moved to another council property, and it was confirmed that talks are being held with nursery management to either agree a five-year lease – or a more permanent deal.
At Tuesday’s economy and resources committee, North West Dumfries Councillor Andy Ferguson said: “What I’m really worried about is that we’ve still got the nursery upstairs. Their fire escape and disabled access are all accessible from the ground floor.
“Can we be assured that this has been taken into account as we take this forward?”
Paul McCulloch, the council’s property estates and programmes manager, said: “Yes. The nursery occupies the upper floor of the building and discussions are ongoing with the nursery at the moment in terms of the potential that the council would dispose of the property.
“The nursery currently don’t have a lease in place but we’re looking to secure that, and they’re also looking at whether or not they’d be interested in the overall building.”
Councillor Ferguson replied: “That’s actually a much better solution all round, I would suggest. If that can be achieved, that’d be the best outcome.”
It was agreed in principle by the council to dispose of the building, which means going through a process of taking the matter to area committees.
Mr McCulloch said: “What can occur, and has occurred on several occasions, is that community groups become interested as we go through the area committee process in terms of a community asset transfer.
“So I can’t sit here today and say it will ultimately end up on the open market, but as we follow due process that is the final outcome.”
