The local body trying to take over a former primary school in the centre of Oban to create a community and cultural hub has won its long campaign.

Oban Communities Trust announced that their bid to purchase the former Rockfield School has been approved by Argyll and Bute Council.

Trust chair Gordon McNab said "This is a fantastic opportunity for Oban and the surrounding areas to promote, encourage, develop and support arts, culture, heritage and to provide both economic and social benefit - and so much more.

"A huge amount has been achieved in a very short space of time. Now the hard work begins to turn the vision into a reality. The priorities now are to make the building wind and watertight and eradicate the dry rot."

Rockfield Primary School in Oban, Argyll, which opened in 1873, had been due to be bulldozed seven years after it closed.

The Trust wants to use the centre to display the heritage of the town including the famous Hope MacDougall Collection, consisting of 5,000 documents collected by Miss Hope MacDougall until her death in 1998. She was daughter, sister and aunt to three successive chiefs of the Clan MacDougall.

Councillor Elaine Robertson, vice chair of the Oban, Lorn and the Isles area Committee, said: "It is clear that local people care deeply about Rockfield, which occupies a special place in the community."