Pitching in to help club

COUNCILLORS have agreed to grant £3000 to Forres Mechanics FC towards the upkeep of their pitch.

Club chairman James 'Doc' Anderson has thanked the local authority for the support which will help keep around 75 local youngsters involved in football via youth development.

He said: "I wish to thank the 13 councillors who see the bigger picture regarding Forres Mechanics. Apart from the Highland League squad, we provide training and competitive matches for between youngsters representing Mechanics at U13, U15, U17 and U20 levels; we sponsor a team in the youngest age group of Forres Area Soccer Sevens; and encourage a newly-formed group of primary school children. All of these youngsters use Mosset Park as often as the pitch will tolerate. In order to protect the pitch, we have recently made an arrangement for the first team squad to train on the artificial surface at Kinloss - we greatly appreciate this arrangement, but it is not free."

He added: "We are keen to make Mosset Park available to as many young footballers as possible and obviously the more robust the playing surface, the more likely we are to achieve this aim."

The Forres Common Good Fund grant would usually have been decided by the ward's elected members, along with the council's head of financial services.

But if local members are unable to reach a consensus, the request goes before Moray Council for a decision.

During a meeting of the full council, Forres Councillor Claire Feaver called for the request to be denied, claiming the club already benefits from Common Good money which is used towards the cost of its annual lease.

She said : "I admire the work of Forres Mechanics and the passion with which its supporters advocate in its interests but we also have to bear in mind that there are plenty of other good causes in Forres which are equally deserving and which are not commercial undertakings.

"There is, in addition, the consideration that there are other football clubs in Moray which do not make the same kind of call on the public purse as far as I'm aware.

"We should also acknowledge that this is about Common Good, ie the whole community, and that our dispersement should take account of everyone who lives in Forres.

"Forres would be a poorer place without our historic club and no doubt I will make myself unpopular with a number of people associated with the club, but the job of an elected representative with responsibility for dispersing public funds is to act on behalf of the interests of the whole community, regardless of considerations of personal popularity. I can not in all conscience agree to the transfer of a further £3000 when this money could go to other causes which would benefit other residents in Forres."

A report to the council said the club recently installed new drainage costing £22,000, funded by a grant from Berry Burn.

It continued: "The club use the grounds to provide organised development of football skills for children, youths and adults and to provide a venue for Forres Mechanics to compete in the Scottish Highland Football League."

Fellow Forres member Councillor Lorna Creswell argued for the £3000 award to be made and her amendment was passed by 13 votes to nine.

Mr Anderson acknowledged cllr Feaver's consistency.

He said: "Unfortunately she is consistently unsympathetic to Forres Mechanic's attempts to increase its community contribution to football for the young of the town.

"She is wildly off the mark in stating that we have received £30,000 in the form of rent assistance from the Common Good Fund in the last few years. In fact our net contribution to the fund has been around £3500 per annum for some time. I leave others to make their own judgement about whether the council is "propping-up the commercial enterprise" which is Forres Mechanics."

During 2018/19, £18,212 was available from the Forres Common Good Fund.

To date, £13,889 has been awarded to various groups within Forres including a previous approved £3000 grant to Forres Mechanics and £525 of property costs.

That left a balance of £3,798 and the recent decision takes that total to £798.