A group of north-east Scouts have had their efforts to turn a church hall into their new home waylaid by coronavirus.
The Marnoch Scouts launched a fundraising page earlier this year in an effort to raise £50,000 to purchase the the Marnoch Church Hall in Aberchirder.
But the youngsters have been unable to proceed with their fundraising activities due to the pandemic.
And now, with no formal offer received for the building, it has been put on the open market.
Leader for the 1st Marnoch Scouts, Claus Nielsen, said: “We’re not in a position to raise more funds right now, we did try to make an offer but it wasn’t high enough.
“We are waiting for a decision to hear if we’ll have access to the hall while it’s still on the market.
“It’s been a bit of a headache, we are losing our meeting facilities and it’s just a very unlucky situation because it’s been impossible to do any fundraising right now because of Covid-19.
“Normally we would have car washes and other activities but that’s just impossible.
“The hall hasn’t been up for sale for a long time, only within the last few weeks the sign has gone up, but hopefully something else will come up for us.”
In response, a spokeswoman for the Church of Scotland said it had delayed the move to sell the hall for as long as possible to allow local groups the time to put together a bid for the venue.
The spokeswoman said: “After a buildings review, the congregation decided to sell the Marnoch church hall and Marnoch Old church.
“Undoubtedly the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed everything down, but while some informal discussions did occur no formal offer has been made and the hall will now be put on the open market.
“The congregation informed the Aberchirder community of the plan to sell Marnoch church hall last year and has waited some months before putting it on the open market to allow time for local groups to make a bid for the building should they choose to do so.”
The asking price is in the region of £80,000.
The church hasn’t been used for regular Sunday worship for the last 40 years but was occasionally used for weddings and special services.
Councillor for Banff and District, Glen Reynolds, said it was “a shame” that the future of the Marnoch Hall remains uncertain.
