HOPES are high that an historic Greenock church can be brought into community hands after a local trust submitted an eleventh-hour bid to take over the building.

Offers for the Old West Kirk closed on September 6, around a month after the Church of Scotland decided to forge ahead with a sale and listed it on the open market.

The sell-off has proved controversial due to the iconic church's status.

The Kirk was the first Presbyterian church built in Scotland following the reformation and it has played a prominent part in both Scottish and local history.

Concerns were raised that the tight turnaround would prevent local groups from lodging a bid to keep it in community ownership.

But the Tele can reveal that members of the Old West Kirk Trust SCIO successfully submitting an offer to bring the building into community control.

The group's five trustees comprise local businessmen and community figures including former Provost Ciano Rebecchi.

Robert Todd, one of the trustees, told the Tele the group had worked hard right up until the closing date to pull their bid together.

He said: "We're doing this for the community.

"The building is historic and we'd hate to see it turned into housing or something like that.

"We would like to see a large number of community groups utilising the facilities - people like the Greenock Burns Club or the Inverclyde Tourist group, who have used it in the past.

"At the moment we've identified about nine or ten groups who are likely to get involved.

"If we become the preferred bidder we'll talk to more organisations and groups to see who else we can involve.

"There are a number of people who have put the feelers out around fundraising and we've had some commitments, but we want to know we have control of the building before we ask for anything like that."

The organisation must now wait for the Church of Scotland to decide whether to back their bid, a process which could take several weeks.

Allan Warrick, another of the trustees, said: "We had a fairly short timeframe to get this together.

"We worked very hard in that period of time.

"We're happy with what we've done, but we don't yet know what the outcome will be."

Fellow trustee John McDougall says the Esplanade building's rich history means it must be preserved.

He said: "Community is obviously the key word that people are thinking of around this, but there is the social heritage of the place too.

"It's really important we keep that intact.

"It's not just a church building, this one is totally different from the rest.

"We're very keen to see it preserved."