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Regeneration Centrepiece goes on the Market

A MILLIONAIRE property developer who bought a former derelict hotel building for just £2200 has put the building, earmarked for £94,000 worth of taxpayer's money, on the market for £120,000.

The revelation that Phillip Skinner, of Sheffield-based Haslam Properties, is to sell The Grapes Hotel in Whithorn with the £94,000 dowry from Historic Scotland's Whithorn Area Conservation Scheme expected to be attached, has caused fury in the town.

But, the original sale by Dumfries and Galloway Council of the Georgian Grade C Listed building for a nominal £2200 and revelations nothing was done to prevent the building being stripped bare of valuable architectural features including ornate fireplaces, baths and radiators prior to the sale being completed, has been described as "scandalous".

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