A PROLONGED effort to secure a future for the crumbling Locarno building has been described as “desperately difficult” by Swindon Council leader Rod Bluh.

The eyesore, also known as the Corn Exchange, has fallen into disrepair while plans are sought which protect the heritage of the former Old Town landmark.

Efforts to find someone to take on the Grade II building, which was built on High Street in the mid-1800s, have been affected by the property downturn.

Coun Bluh said: “It is desperately difficult. If we do not respect our heritage buildings and save our heritage buildings, they are never going to get built again.

“It’s desperately important we save the ones we’ve got.

“We did have a solution, there was an approved planning application in 2008 and I didn’t think it was best application in the world because the developments around it would compromise the building, but it was actually going to get the Corn Exchange rebuilt.

“We have now had the worst property recession in living memory over the last four years.

“We are hopefully going to come out of that and the quest is going to go on.”

Developer Steve Rosier of Bach Homes Locarno Ltd said last October that he wanted to turn the derelict site into a £22m commercial and residential scheme by 2014.

But Coun Bluh, who is standing for the new Old Town ward in the May local elections, said: “There are live applications floating around the Corn Exchange at the present time.

“ I don’t personally think they are the solution. The problem you have got from a purely commercial basis is to actually secure the heritage part of the building there is no commercially viable solution.

“Unless we get the Heritage Lottery Fund, and hopefully when the Olympics are out the way there will be some money for this kind of work, we need funds to restore the fabric and allow commercial use to take over the rest.”

Coun Bluh, speaking to Pipers Area Residents’ Association on Saturday, added: “Our commitment is absolute.”

A mini-hustings at the meeting also heard a drastic solution from UKIP’s Ed Gerrard. He said he would “bulldoze” the building and build something new.