Moray councillors have agreed new lease arrangements for Highland League club Forres Mechanics’ Mosset Park ground.

They have set the annual rental for the ground at £4500 a year, compared with the current £5.60 (correct) a year.

The rent will be reviewed again in 2017 and every five years thereafter.

Councillors also agreed to a landlord’s break option of two years, meaning that the club would be given two years’ notice to quit in the event of the council seeking vacant possession of the property.


The terms of the new lease were proposed by Forres councillor Lee Bell and were approved unanimously.

The district valuer had assessed the open market rent for the site at £35,000 a year, while the rental for existing use as a football ground was assessed at £4500 a year.

Councillors were told that an annual rental of £35,000 would be unsustainable for the club.

The rent review followed a public consultation last year on whether to sell Mosset Park and adjoining Forres Common Good land to Aberdeen-based Redco Milne for retail development.

Seventy per cent of respondents supported the option not to sell the land and to offer a new lease on Mosset Park to the football club on appropriate terms.

(GK)