ONE of Leigh’s best known buildings is up for sale again.

The frontage of the former Railway Road campus of Wigan and Leigh College goes up for auction next month with a guideline price of £350,000.

The college building closed in 2010 and in June the following year was sold for an undisclosed amount to fairground operators and business couple Billy and Tammy Silcock.

In June 2011 at a key handover ceremony, Mr Silcock revealed plans to create a funfair museum and education facility in the library part of the building, and said they hoped to convert the listed front part of the building into spacious apartments.

The Silcocks still plan to create the museum and schoolroom, and also retain the Marsh Gymnasium, but want to dispose of the frontage for which they have gained planning permission to convert into 24 apartments.

This week Tammy Silcock told the Journal: “We’re not selling all of it. We are only selling the front portion of the building.

“Basically, we’ve been trying to get finance to do the work and this is the reason we had to make a decision. The front section is within a conservation area and everything on the outside will stay the same.

“Doing this means that the education facility and museum will progress quicker than it would have done.”

The couple’s plans still involve demolishing the more modern, southern section of the college and building homes on that portion of the site.

Wigan Council granted planning permission last May for the conversion of the front portion of the college into 24 apartments with parking provision.

The four storey building on a 36,205 square feet site will be auctioned by Pugh’s on June 12 at the Citizen Suite at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.