THE new owner of Helensburgh’s famous Clock Tower is expected to be announced “very shortly”.

Visit Scotland, which owns the seafront property, has chosen a successful bidder for the building and has received approval for the sale from both the organisation’s board and the Scottish Government.

The Clock Tower was put up for sale,with a price tag of £65,000, last summer, when VisitScotland said it was exploring “alternative options” for providing visitor information in the town.

But the organisation says it received several bids for the property by the closing date in November – and is now on the verge of announcing the name of the buyer.

A spokesperson told the Advertiser: “A number of purchase offers from prospective buyers of the Clock Tower were received by VisitScotland’s property agents by the closing date of November.

“Following this, a thorough assessment of the offers was carried out to rate each according to a range of factors and score the bids against various criteria including offer price and benefit to the community.

“This enabled a successful bid to be selected and since then, steps have been taken to undertake the process of gaining the approval and ratification of both the Board of VisitScotland and the Scottish Government.

“These protocols have now been completed and we will now be notifying the successful purchaser, as well as the unsuccessful bidders, of the outcome.

“We will therefore very shortly be in a position to make a public announcement on the sale.”

Helensburgh Central councillor Aileen Morton, who is also Argyll and Bute Council’s policy lead for economic development and strategic tourism, said: “While it was very disappointing that Visit Scotland decided to sell on the Clock Tower, it is great to hear that not only is the sale about to be agreed, but that there were several bidders for the site.

“I hope that the successful bidder is able to bring the site back into use as soon as possible, and in a way that benefits local people.”

VisitScotland stated last September that they would be open to a community buy-out of the property – though Helensburgh Community Council decided not to pursue the idea after considering the financial implications of maintaining the building.

The town’s MSP, Jackie Baillie, lodged questions at Holyrood asking the Scottish Government about the support available for community groups interested in buying the Clock Tower.

Helensburgh’s MSP, Jackie Baillie, who tabled questions in the Scottish Parliament about support for a possible community-based bid for the property, said: “I look forward to finding out more about the successful bid because the Clock Tower is a landmark building in the town centre with so much potential.

“It is important that the local community and our economy benefits from any development which takes place.

“The decision by VisitScotland to withdraw from Helensburgh was disappointing and the alternative arrangements they have brought forward must not result in any reduction in local services and information for tourists.”