A prime piece of Perthshire property is set to be sold to raise vital funds and save cash for Dundee City Council.
Permission must first be received from the Scottish Parliament to repeal a legal order and allow Dundee to keep the sale proceeds from the Belmont Estate.
Presently the cash raised would have to go back into Belmont. Dundee councillors will be asked to approve the legal move next week.
Belmont Castle Estate, near Meigle, and its extensive grounds has a history dating back to the 15th century and was the home of the Liberal Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
It was then bought by Dundee jute magnate Sir James Caird and presented in 1918 to Dundee Corporation, predecessor of the city council.
The castle was leased as an eventide home by the Church of Scotland but it closed this year after its care subsidiary, CrossReach, found it no longer financially sustainable.
The extensive grounds, stretching to many acres, also contain an outdoor education centre for young people.
The home’s closure and consequent lack of lease income would create a drain on hard-pressed Dundee council coffers and senior officers have prepared a plan to put it on the market.
SNP administration leader Ken Guild said: “We have a statutory duty to ensure we do not run up expense in maintaining empty property.
“Given the current financial climate, we would find the property difficult to let and we are looking at ways of ensuring Belmont does not become a drain on the finances of the council.”
Labour group leader Kevin Keenan appreciated the attractiveness of a large capital receipt from the sale of the Belmont Estate, but stressed that it was gifted for the good of the people of Dundee.
He asked: “What next? Is the disposal of any of our parks, Caird or Camperdown on the horizon?”
I doubt whether a proposal such as that would be acceptable to anyone in Dundee.”
He did not want to see any capital receipt “frittered away by plugging any shortfall or gaps in the capital plan” and said he was considering a formal proposal that, should the sale go ahead, any capital receipt should be reinvested in an asset that will deliver long-term financial stability to the common good fund.
He said: “The council should use these funds to finance a building that would, firstly, deliver jobs for the city.
“For example, a speculative office block within the waterfront development, or the planned hotel that will form part of the new railway concourse. The office or hotel, while remaining a building belonging to the city as an asset, would also see a revenue stream returned from its operators.”
Another concern he voiced was that Dundee City Council’s own council tax base could diminish if people chose to move from the city to any new Belmont development.