A former Perthshire school could be demolished to make way for housing after the site was labelled “potentially dangerous” by engineers.
Strone of Cally Primary, in Bridge of Cally, has lain empty since 2010 when pupil numbers plummeted.
The buildings and grounds lie in a state of disrepair, with moss growing in the now-deserted playground and cracks appearing in the walls.
The closure is thought to have saved Perth and Kinross Council in the region of £86,000 a year mainly through staff and building running costs.
Now an application to knock down the main building and an accompanying pre-fab cabin has been submitted to the local authority.
If it is approved, one four-bedroom and two three-bedroom houses will be built on the sloping site.
A letter from Dundee firm Burnett Consulting Engineers Ltd to Perth-based developers Alexander and Co reveals that redeveloping the existing school is “unlikely to be economically viable”.
It states: “The site is presently occupied by an old stone-built school building, temporary cabin extensions, tarred playground and grassed sloping areas.
“The temporary cabins are not suitable for reuse and are to be removed as part of the redevelopment.
“The original school building is a single-storey, stone masonry building with pitched, slated roof and suspended wooden floor.
“There is a vertical crack in the north east corner running full height and widening to the top.
“The east gable end shows a significant bulge mid length, with movement evident between the stone and window frame.
“This is indicative of the gable detaching from the main building as a result of lack of proper tying in the construction, combined with poor-quality stonework and deteriorating mortar.”
Recommending demolition, the letter continued: “Due to the quality of the stonework, the mortar, the movement evident in the east gable, the rising damp issues and the lack of proper ties and restraints in the roof, any attempt to modify this building would be of high risk to personnel and is also unlikely to be economically viable.”
Strone of Cally Primary School was closed after the pupil roll had been declining steadily for years, with just one child due to attend in 2010-11.
Children from the village now attend Kirkmichael Primary School, which is seven miles away.