Lochwinnoch Community Buyout Group

Update

LCBG had its AGM on Tuesday 22nd November 2011.  The 5 year 'right to buy' window expires in May 2012 and moves are already underway to assess if there is community support behind the plan to apply to extend this period for another 5 years.

Initial feedback is positive.  Please look out for the petitions around the village and sign if you are in support and live in the PA12 4.. area.

Benefits - having the 'right to buy' not only benefits the village in that the community have the first refusal on the property should the owners decide to sell, it also ensures that the community will be consulted should other buyers express an interest.  The vision of the LCBG group does not exclude it supporting other appropriate business uses for the site which would benefit the community.

History

After a long and involved application process, LCBG were finally awarded the 'right to buy' the old Struthers lemonade Factory building in May 2006 by the Scottish Executive/Government. This followed the village ballot when around a thousand people turned out to vote, 90% of whom were in favour.
We were then facing another period of hard work trying to get the plan into a final shape, to draw together the sources of money and to get ourselves into a position whereby we could actually put in a bid to buy the site by Nov 17, the date set by the legislation.

Instead, we very quickly received a letter from the owners’ solicitor saying that the owners were formally withdrawing the property from the market. This, it seems, is a very unusual situation since most other applications, if they get this far, go on to completion.

As the right to buy in this case does not involve any element of compulsory purchase we can go no further at this time. However, our claim on the property will continue for up to five years, during which time, if it comes on the market we can buy it and they can only sell it to us. After the five years we could reapply and renew our application.

In the meantime we are continuing to develop our plan and having talks with possible funders and other supporting organisations. We have requested a meeting with the owners to discuss the matter and see if they can’t be persuaded to do the decent thing for the village, and hand back this useful bit of land which is now badly needed for social enterprise.