A former school campus site in Dumfries could be sold off and transformed into an affordable housing development.
The site where Maxwelltown High School and adjoining St Ninian’s Primary once stood in Lochside is being eyed up for a sale to Wheatley Homes.
The schools were closed when The North West Community Campus opened in August 2018 and, following a spate of vandalism, the demolition of the buildings was completed in
2021.
The 18.82 hectare piece of land is now vacant and has already been allocated for a housing development of up to 104 units with Dumfries and Galloway Council’s local development plan.
Council officers are now suggesting that the site could be packaged with surrounding land and be included in the Lochside regeneration project led by Wheatley Homes, delivering much-needed new housing.
A report on the matter was produced by Paul McCulloch, the council’s property estates and programmes manager, and is due to be tabled at the council’s education committee next
week.
It reads: “There is a possibility that this land could be disposed along with the adjacent land in council ownership to the west of the site, which amounts to 11.51 acres, in a negotiated sale to the registered housing
association.”
Councillors are now being asked to agree that the land is surplus to the requirements and should progress through the disposal process as quickly as possible.
The council report continues: “Should members agree to declare the property surplus to the requirements of the education and learning directorate, the council’s disposal acquisitions policy/procedures will be followed with the next step being to invite the strategic asset board to declare the land surplus to the requirements of the council.
“In addition, further reports will be brought before members regarding any proposals to include this land within the wider Lochside Collaborative Regeneration
Project.” Maxwelltown High School had been built in 1971 to cater for the growth of the Dumfries population in the 1970s, particularly in the council housing schemes in Lochside and Lincluden.
