People of Forres score winner in land fight

Published on 05/07/2011 19:30

THE Moray town of Forres was celebrating last night after plans to sell off the Common Good land - home to one of the Highland League's oldest football clubs for more than century - were kicked into touch.

Moray Council had sparked outrage in the town last year by announcing that the authority was going out to public consultation on the possible sale of more than three hectares of community-owned land in the town where Forres Mechanics, the holders of the Highland League Cup, have played at Mosset Park since being founded in 1884.

Redco Milne, a joint venture between building giant the Stewart Milne Group and Aberdeen-based developer Redco Assets, had announced plans to create up to 500 full and part-time jobs and stop the exodus of shoppers to Elgin and Inverness by building a 25 million retail complex at Bogton Road, including the Mosset Park site.

Some 70 per cent of the people of Forres who responded to the council's public consultation voted against the sell-off. And yesterday, at a meeting of the council's policy and resources committee, councillors unanimously voted against proceeding with the sale.

Forres Mechanics chairman John Anderson said: "It is huge weight off our shoulders and there are various developments and improvements we want to do to the ground that we can now press ahead with."

John Bremner, chairman of Forres Community Council, said the townspeople would be delighted. He said: "Nobody in Forres wanted the sale to go ahead and everybody in the town will be very happy."

"They listened to the people. If the Mechanics' ground had been sold, they might have had to move to Elgin to Nairn on a temporary basis and it could have been years before a new park was built in the town."