Land and a former waiting room at a West Lothian cemetery is one of six sites being sold off by West Lothian Council.

Other assets to be disposed of include the former Bathgate West Nursery and a bowling green and changing pavilion in Philpstoun.

Two more cemetery waiting rooms, in Winchburgh and at Uphall, are earmarked for demolition.

READ MORE: Seven West Lothian communities left with no council homes to let

Local councillor Pauline Orr said she was “ bemused” when she saw the site, at Mains Road, Linlithgow was up for sale.

In a report to the council’s Executive David Baird, Property Services Manager said: “The six properties above have been vacated by the council and are no longer required for service delivery.

“The Executive is asked to note that there is currently no allocated budget to progress property demolitions therefore where the recommendation is to demolish, officers will place the property on a minimum maintenance regime, holding the asset as vacant until the council are in a position to progress demolition and site clearance.”

The Linlithgow site, under quarter of an acre with access from Mains Road, is considered marketable, according to Mr Baird.

SNP Councillor Orr asked: "How viable is that for sale, it may not be everybody will relish the challenge of converting or building a house in a cemetery. Some might."

Mr Baird told the meeting: “the particular site here lends itself to marketing because it's at the periphery of the site and there's an access off Mains Road, so from that point of view we believe it can make a marketable opportunity. This one should be tested on the market,to see whether people do wish to bid for it."

Regarding the sale of the Bathgate nursery Councillor Pauline Stafford, the SNP group depute leader asked: “It says if there is no viable interest thereafter the property will be demolished. I just wondered what’s the time frame for marketing. Is there a cut off where you’ll move to demolish and what budget would it come out of? That’s quite a big site.”

Mr Baird said: “Under our standard marketing procedures you would have a number of months where we’d market the property to sse what offers would come from the community or commercial sector, So we would give this at least three months on the market. Should we have to demolish there is no current budget for that but we would look to recover the costs from the sale of the cleared site.”

The properties agreed for disposal are:-

- Bathgate West Nursery School, Millburn, Bathgate

- bowling green and changing pavilion, The Avenue, Philpstoun

- waiting room at Winchburgh Cemetery, Niddry Road, Winchburgh

- waiting room at Uphall Cemetery, Goschen Place, Uphall

- approximately 0.357 acres at Merker Terrace, Linlithgow

- approximately 0.155 acres. including a waiting room at Cemetery Lodge, Mains Road, Linlithgow.

Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community hereand get the latest news sent straight to your messages.

Story Saved

You can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.