Field is leased for £1 a year

THE Balemartine schoolhouse playing field on the Isle of Tiree will be leased to the Balemartine Residents’ Association for 21 years at a peppercorn rent of £1 per annum, following a full council meeting at Argyll and Bute’s headquarters at Kilmory last Thursday.

The association plans to establish a ‘usable green space and community garden’ on the disused council- owned land, valued at £27,000, for ‘local people to have access to play and learn’.

Council officers, who recommended the lease, said: ‘ The do-nothing option would see the playing field unused, with the council potentially occurring annual maintenance costs.

‘An opportunity would be missed to turn the disused playing field into an aesthetically pleasing community garden that could be accessed by locals.

‘A break clause would allow the council to break from the lease agreement should anything material change for either party or a more strategic use for this piece of land be considered by the council at a future date.’