Building work has started on a £7.8million regeneration project in Dalbeattie.
The town’s former primary school is being turned into Dalbeattie Rocks and Wheels – an outdoor activity centre featuring climbing walls, a hostel, a pump track and community rooms.
Dalbeattie Community Initiative have worked hard on the project for several years and have been handed ownership of the building through the council’s community asset transfer process.
Building work is expected to take just over a year to complete and, once open, the funds generated by the centre will be invested in the local community.
Ashleigh Limited are the main contractors, with specialists being used for the new pump track and bouldering facilities.
Chair of the council’s economy and infrastructure committee and local councillor Ian Blake said: “The plans have been driven by the views of the local community, many of whom are former pupils or whose families attended the school that has been at the heart of the town for well over a century.
“It is fitting that the new lease of life being brought to this iconic granite building is based on continued public access, use and enjoyment of the facilities it will have to offer.”
The project is being backed thanks to £5.2 million from the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund, with cash also coming from the Scottish Government Place Based Investment Programme, the National Lottery, Dumfries and Galloway Council, South of Scotland Enterprise, Sport Scotland and the Holywood Trust.
Vice committee chair, Councillor Jackie McCamon, said: “Once up and running, a programme of events and training opportunities will give young people and the unemployed the chance to develop the skills needed to gain paid employment.