Published on:
06
December 2012
Clackmannanshire Council and The Alloa Allotments Association have signed and concluded a 25 year lease for a site in Sauchie.
The Association agreed unanimously at their recent Annual General Meeting that the lease negotiated with the Council should be accepted and signed.
The formal signing took place at Greenfield House, with the three 2010-2012 office bearers, chairman Mike Hodge, secretary John Blake and treasurer Joyce Morton, all putting pen to the lease on behalf of the Association. They were witnessed at the signing by Council Leader, Councillor Gary Womersley.
The lease, signed this week, will run from November 2012 until November 2037, with a nominal rental fee paid annually and reviewed every five years.
Councillor Womersley said: "I was delighted to oversee the lease for the Alloa Allotments Association finally reach a successful conclusion. They play an important and vital role in our community. Allotments are essential to help the environment, but at the same time, this particular area was waste land. They have transformed it and made it into an excellent resource."
The three acre site at Keilarsbrae, Sauchie, has 36 individual allotment plot holders, all of which are fully occupied at present.
The allotments opened on the current site in 1996 and the association have been operating with a draft lease since 1997/98.
Chairman of the Association, Mike Hodge, said: "It is a milestone day for all of us to be signing this lease. It finally gives us the security we have been trying to get for the past 16 years.
"It means we are now properly constituted as an Association and can now apply for things such as environmental improvement grants, as opposed to the situation we were in previously having just a draft lease and a draft constitution. This was an area of previous waste land, which the allotment plot holders have turned to good use for the environment and improved the area at the same time.
Secretary, John Blake, added: "It has been just as frustrating as gardening trying to finally get to this stage, but we can't thank the Council enough to see this through to a successful conclusion for everyone concerned."