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The owners of McGill's Buses have offered up a massive 65,000sq ft former IBM site to be used as a field hospital by the NHS in the fight against Coronavirus.

The vacant IBM call centre at Spango Valley near Greenock, Inverclyde is being made available to the NHS by businessmen James and Sandy Easdale - as the Greenock Telegraph reports.

The disused building was bought by the Easdale's for £1.5m in 2018 and they have plans for a £100m mixed-use village there, including 450 homes.

But the brothers hope the vacant site building could be transformed into a makeshift field hospital, like the ExCel centre in London, if the number of Covid-19 patients becomes too much for nearby Inverclyde Royal and other hospitals to handle.

The site has a canteen, toilet and office facilities in place, together with a network of utilities capable of supporting increased usage - so it is hoped it could be ready quickly.

READ MORE: Coronavirus LIVE: Scotland's confirmed cases breaks 1000 with 33 deaths

The brothers have applied for permission to demolish the building to pave the way for the development, but believe it could now play a vital role in helping to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Easdale family has also offered the use of their commercial office block in Port Glasgow’s Scarlow Street, which was formerly used by the Department for Work and Pensions.

In a joint statement, Sandy and James Easdale said: “The NHS and the Scottish Government are looking at potential options for field hospitals in Scotland, similar to what is being facilitated at the Excel in London.

“We know there will be specific criteria required by the NHS but this is a vacant, large capacity building which is easily accessed in the west of Scotland.

“Contact has already been made with local politicians and Scottish Government regarding its availability and should it be required then we can make progress rapidly on its handover.

“The NHS staff and government are doing brilliant work to get us through this unprecedented crisis and we are willing to help them in any way we can.”

Seamus Shields, the joint owner of the site and owner of Advance Construction, said: “As a business we are navigating ourselves through these challenging times and can only imagine the pressures that the NHS and Scottish Government are under during this crisis.

“We are delighted to be able to assist in any way possible and my team are ready and willing to help prepare the site if required to enable access and infrastructure requirements of the NHS.”