A multi-million pound plan to build affordable homes in Castle Douglas has been ditched.
Cunninghame Housing Association wanted to build 21 homes on the site of the town’s old abattoir in Cotton Street.
However, a report for councillors has revealed the scheme as “no longer being deliverable”.
Members of the economy and resources committee will be asked on Tuesday to agree to remove the project from the local authority’s strategic housing investment plan (SHIP).
The document is used to set out the council’s affordable housing priorities, with the Cotton Street proposal one of a number of schemes included.
The Cotton Street site has lain empty since the abattoir closed in the mid 2000s and is included in the council’s vacant and derelict land register.
Cunninghame Housing Association were successful in a bid for £250,000 from the council’s town centre living fund in 2022 after “site investigations identified there are additional works required to remediate the site and bring it forward for development”.
Documents lodged with the bid show the total cost of the project at that point was more than £4.6 million.
It had been hoped the development would help alleviate demand for affordable housing as well as provide a jobs boost and support local businesses.
However, the report for Tuesday’s meeting reveals that despite “significant efforts by all involved”, the project cannot be brought to fruition.
The previously allocated £250,000 will be returned to the town centre living fund.
Cunninghame Housing Association’s development manager said: “A combination of circumstances around the proposed development at Cotton Street, Castle Douglas have adversely affected the project’s viability.
“Site costs and condition as well as additional remediation works required for development, coupled with increased costs due to hyper-inflation has meant this development is no longer financially viable and led to the association’s withdrawal from this particular development”.
