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.

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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)