WILTSHIRE Council is selling off a property which was home to youth music services in Salisbury as a development opportunity.

Grosvenor House and Riverside House, on Churchfields Road, are being marketed as a "prestigious residential development opportunity" by Myddelton and Major.

The buildings were previously home to Bass Connection, a music service for youths in Salisbury run by Wiltshire Council.

But in 2014, Wiltshire Council announced plans to cut £500,000 from youth services in the county, axing youth clubs and cutting youth worker jobs.

After public outcry and a ten-week consultation, they reduced the savings target to £190,000 and announced that 144 jobs would be cut.

Salisbury Area Board arranged for local company, Sound Emporium, to take over the running of Bass Connection at Grosvenor House until 2015.

Sound Emporium recently opened a dedicated youth music studio in a previously disused bunker in Harnham, after two years of planning and renovation.

Myddelton and Major said its client, Wiltshire Council, had already submitted a pre-application to the council's planning department to convert the property into a number of apartments and new homes.

The property consultancy firm said it was "seeking offers from developers subject to planning basis" and invited interested parties to submit their proposals.

Wiltshire Councillor Ricky Rogers, Labour group leader and councillor for Salisbury Bemerton said it was "inevitable" that the buildings would be sold.

He said: "The value of the location is absolutely stunning.

"The sad reflection is that for over 40 years young people have enjoyed fantastic youth facilities there and it's sad that that will come to an end.

"There are generations of people who gained maturity and benefitted from these services, particularly at Grosvenor House.

"We knew that these centres would be sold off when the Tories sold the youth services."