AN ‘EYESORE’ building at the heart of a Borders town will finally be demolished by early next year – eight months behind schedule.

The controlled dismantling of 2 High Street, Jedburgh, was originally pencilled in for July this year.

The process began in December 2021, but due to a number of additional unforeseen works the site will now not be cleared until February 2023.

Works to be completed before that date include underpinning and repair works to the exposed mutual gables the building shares with High Street and Exchange Street and extensive archaeology works which were undertaken earlier this year.

Over £2m will be reallocated from the council’s second homes council affordable housing investment budget to meet the additional costs of dismantling and to fund a new replacement building.

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The new building will fill the space left behind and will contain commercial space on the ground floor and affordable housing on the upper floors.

Councillor Scott Hamilton, the council’s executive member for community and business, said: “Understandably there is a lot of public interest in the progress being made at 2 High Street with the building occupying such a prominent spot in the centre of the town.

“SBC took control of the dilapidated building though a compulsory purchase order in 2021 after other options had been exhausted and since late last year a careful process of controlled dismantling has been taking place at the sire.

“This is an extremely complex and hard to predict phase for a project, particularly one in such poor condition as this, and often throws up unforeseen issues that lead to additional unplanned work.

“As a result of various unplanned works discovered, this phase has increased in cost by £100k and the completion pushed back to February 2023 to allow us to address them.

“Despite this, the project continues to make good progress with more detailed designs for the new replacement building to be undertaken before the end of the year.”