THE former Greenock Academy building is set to be knocked down next year at a cost of more than £160,000 after TV show Waterloo Road was axed.

Bulldozers will move in to tear down the Madeira Street school in September 2015 with the demolition to be completed two months later.

Once cleared, the site will be sold off by the council for redevelopment.

The total cost of the demolition project is expected to be £164,000 and will signal the end of the former Greenock Academy building after more than half a century.

It has had a stay of execution over the last two years following the arrival of BBC One drama Waterloo Road in January 2012.

But TV bosses announced on Wednesday that the final scenes will be filmed in May before the last 10 episodes of the show are screened next year.

The school sits in a prime west end site and could be a lucrative proposition for a housebuilder.

Instead, council leader Stephen McCabe simply praised those involved with Waterloo Road for their commitment to the area over the last two years.

Councillor McCabe said: “I would like to thank everyone involved with Waterloo Road — cast, crew and production team — for their faith in Greenock and their commitment to Inverclyde over the past couple of years.

“The fact the programme was extended from 50 hours to 70 hours reflects extremely well on the reception and co-operation the show has enjoyed here, and I know a great many local people and businesses have benefitted from the experience.

“It has also been a wonderful opportunity to showcase the area to a national audience and to other programme makers looking for locations.” Greenock Academy closed after 156 years in 2011 as the school was merged with Gourock High to form Clydeview Academy and moved to a brand new £27 million campus at Bayhill in Gourock.

The school was initially based in Finnart Street, on the land now occupied by West College Scotland’s Greenock campus, before moving to a new purpose-built facility on Madeira Street in the 1960s.

At one point the Academy was the top-rated school in Scotland and it featured regularly in the top 10.