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A TINY corner of land in Shiskine purchased 24 years ago for £100 has just been sold on for £27,000.
Farmer Sandy MacAlister let Strathclyde Regional Council have the land in 1983 because of the need for more water for the area’s residents.
But this week he admitted he would think twice about entering into a similar deal again.
The former water pump house and borehole site in Shiskine was sold on behalf of Scottish Water at an auction in Glasgow two weeks ago.
At a sale price of £27,000, it made a massive return on the original land price of £100.
Mr MacAlister, of Shedog Farm, told The Arran Banner: ‘I didn’t really want to sell the land, but there was a shortage of water for the village so I suppose I felt I had a kind of civic duty to help out.
‘I was paid £134, but £34 of that went on lawyers fees.
‘The former Strathclyde Regional Council bought the land on behalf of the water board, but it never occurred to me at the time that it would eventually be sold on again.
‘I think I would look at things quite differently if there were any further approaches to me for that kind of operation.
‘It’s proved a nice investment for Scottish Water as things have turned out, though I do appreciate that it has a statutory duty to obtain the best price possible when selling on its assets.’
The site was sold by Edinburgh-based SVA Property Auctions Ltd. A company spokesman said it would not reveal the buyer, or even if they were an island resident.
However, he confirmed that such properties were often bought with the view to establishing a house on the site, pending council planning permission.
‘Obviously, an argument in seeking permission might be that a house would be more attractive than the existing building,’ he added.
One drawback is that the site, just big enough for a house, sits just off the B880 String Road on a tricky corner south of Clauchen Bridge, so access could be a problem.
Mr MacAlister confirmed that when he owned the land, cars often failed to negotiate the corner and ended up in the field where the pump house is sited.
‘We were forever repairing the gate at that spot,’ he revealed. ‘So if anyone does build there, they may find one or two unwanted visitors.’
A Scottish Water spokeswoman said this week: ‘The sale of a borehole occurs when the asset becomes redundant or disused. Shiskine borehole is such a site and is no longer of service to Scottish Water.
‘The capacity of the borehole is such that it no longer meets the demands of the local area, and as is policy on such assets has been sold at private auction. The purchasing of the borehole does not come complete with extraction rights and therefore the new owner will have to apply to SEPA for a licence. Shiskine borehole, which has an area of 280sq/m, has sufficient resource to supply a private home owner and could therefore be purchased for this reason.’
