WORK is progressing to re-open an important community centre in the Wee County – despite the building being targeted in a recent spate of vandalism.

Volunteers at Tullibody Community Development Trust have been working behind the scenes to safely re-open Tullibody Civic Centre.

At the same time, they were left dismayed at the start of this week when damage was yet again discovered at the building.

Young people have been climbing on to the dangerous roof, smashing bottles all around the centre in the past weeks.

Damage to a window was discovered this Monday, just weeks after another window had to be temporarily boarded up.

However, it is understood the culprits were caught on CCTV with police asked to visit and follow up at the time of writing.

Speaking of the recent spate of vandalism, Janette McGowan, of Tullibody Community Development Trust, said: "We know that during the summer holidays these things happen, the kids get fed up – especially this year – but we just want to nip it in the bud."

She added: "We are asking the neighbours to be vigilant where they can and if they can maybe just give the police a phone, mention they can see kids climbing up the roof or if it looks like they are smashing bottles.

"There's been god knows how many Irn-Bru bottles smashed around the perimeter of the building."

Dedicated volunteers keep working to re-open the centre as soon as given the green light, however.

As part of that, the trust has been looking at the design and layout of each room to consider what activities could return safely, with social distancing in mind.

Signs and sanitisation stations have been set up with thanks to Clackmannanshire Third Sector Interface (CTSi) for their support.

Equipment and chairs have been moved away to reduce surface contact.

"We are just about there," Janette added. "We converted what was the library room, we had three computers donated to us so we've got them set up now and well spaced apart with a sanitisation station in the room."

The computers will help people access the internet for job searches or for remote learning, for instance, and two more could be coming, courtesy of CTSi and its Tech Share initiative.

Plans are also being drawn up to re-open the centre's café, potentially for takeaway only to begin with.

It is anticipated, however, that activities will not return exactly as they were before the lockdown.

Janette said: "We don't envisage that we'll open up full capacity the way we did previously, but we'll maybe start off with some of the smaller activities where there aren't so many participants so we can get a chance to gauge that we are managing it safely for everybody concerned."

Meanwhile, the trust is also negotiating the purchase of the building with Clackmannanshire Council and funders the Scottish Land Fund, which is seeking final applications by the end of October.