A PROPOSAL has been put in place to save Scotland's oldest curling club – but the plans will cost more than £1 million.
Equipment at the 1970s Green Hotel in Kinross is so dated that it effectively becomes illegal in 2015 when new European regulations come into force.
Unless the facilities are upgraded the rink will be closed down and the local club, which was established in 1668, made homeless.
In a bid to save the club, members of Kinross Curling Trust have approved proposals to negotiate a lease with Montgomery Hotels, operators of the Green Hotel.
The Trust voted overwhelmingly, 98 – 13, to negotiate a 25-year lease with the hotel, but the club will now need to raise the necessary £1.1m to £1.8m to carry out the upgrades.
Club chairman Blair Melville welcomed the "overwhelming" support from trust members.
He suggested the current problems, which have been brought to a head by the new legislation, have been brewing over a number of years.
Mr Melville said: "The rink has undoubtedly suffered from under-investment for many years.
"The trust will work to secure funding from as many sources as possible to achieve what local curlers want – a facility which will attract future generations into one of Scotland's true native sports."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article