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Community invited to hear plans for Leanchoil


By Staff Reporter

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Members of the Leanchoil Steering Group - left to right - Major General Seymour Monro, Tom Duff and Andrew Anderson outside the disused Forres hospital after it was annouced that it will be taken over by Erskine, a veterans care charity. ..Picture: Daniel Forsyth..
Members of the Leanchoil Steering Group - left to right - Major General Seymour Monro, Tom Duff and Andrew Anderson outside the disused Forres hospital after it was annouced that it will be taken over by Erskine, a veterans care charity. ..Picture: Daniel Forsyth..

A PUBLIC briefing on the future of one of the town’s most loved buildings is to be held next month.

Members of the public are being urged to attend the event which will give a full update on the future of Leanchoil Hospital.

The initiative has been led by Forres Community Council, who raised funds to commission LDN Architects to hold a public consultation and options appraisal in 2019.

At the latest meeting, which will be held in Forres Town Hall on Wednesday, February 5 at 7pm, representatives from the soon to be formed Leanchoil Trust will provide an update and attendees will also be asked to take part in a community impact assessment.

Talks are progressing positively with veterans’ care charity Erskine who want to use the main hospital building as an activity centre. The business plan, being managed by Community Enterprise, is well under way and the Leanchoil Trust is in talks with NHS Grampian about a Community Asset Transfer following a recent valuation of the site.

Major General Seymour Monro, of the current working group, said: "We had delegates from Erskine visit the site for a second time in January and they were very encouraged by what they saw. They are so enthused by the building’s potential that they have agreed to match-fund some of the initial costs for refurbishment. Discussions with NHS Grampian about a Community Asset Transfer are ongoing. In addition to Erskine’s involvement, we are in discussion with Health and Social Care Moray, and NHS Grampian, about delivering health and wellbeing for the community in the refurbishment.

"This is why it is so important that people attend the meeting, so they can hear in full what the project is all about."

A community impact assessment will be launched at the meeting, facilitated by the team at Forres Area Community Trust (FACT) and TSI Moray. The results will be used to inform the Scottish Land Funds Stage 2 application, which will go towards the purchase of the site.

Debbie Herron, development manager with FACT explained: "It’s really important that people from the area come along to the meeting as this is a further opportunity for them to have their say on the future of Leanchoil. It will be a really interactive session and all we are asking are three simple questions which will help us move the project forward."

Forres Community Council chairman Graham Hilditch, a member of the Leanchoil Trust, explained: "The key point which came from the public consultation was that the preferred option for the future of Leanchoil is for it to maintain its historical nature of providing health and well-being services for the community. We very much look forward to sharing all of the updates at the briefing."



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