Buyers looking to snap up unused Aberlour nursery cabins

Moray Council is on the brink of selling two unused temporary nursery units.

The cabins were bought for £235,000 to house children from Aberlour Primary School during a £1 million refurbishment.

Ordered against the council’s procurement rules, the units are currently being stored in Aberdeenshire.

And the local authority is paying £90 a week to have them kept there.

Closing date

The cabins went up for sale in October.

At a meeting of the corporate committee this week councillor for Speyside Glenlivet Derek Ross asked for an update on the units.

He said: “We were told they’d been marketed and there were a number of expressions of interest.

“I was wondering where we were with that and whether they’ve been sold?”

Deputy chief executive Rhona Gunn said a a closing date was reached last week, and a variety of proposals are being considered.

She added: “Those are currently being assessed and officers will be reporting back to council, having completed the assessment process given the diversity of the range of interests that have been expressed.”

Whoever buys the cabins will have to collect them from a depot in Kintore.

And as they are flat packed they will need to put them together too.

Each unit has a classroom with storeroom, kitchen, toilets, office and entrance hall.

Unauthorised payment

An investigation into purchasing the cabins launched in February, after councillors felt they were kept in the dark over the nursery refurbishment.

It found an unauthorised payment of more then £117,000 was made without the knowledge of the chief financial officer.

The investigation also made a recommendation to sell  as a the cabins as a matter of urgency.

It was proposed to put one of the units in the grounds of Aberlour Primary and the other at nearby Speyside High School.

But safety concerns were raised over the close proximity of it to the car park at the secondary.

And plans to move the nursery children into yurts next to the cemetery in the village were thrown out on safety grounds.

Instead the youngsters and staff relocated to rooms in Speyside High School in August to allow work to start.

They moved back to the refurbished nursery in November.