AN agreement to extend the lease for Loreburn Hall in Dumfries for another six months is set to rake in £2000 for the Dumfries Common Good Fund.
The Electric Theatre Workshop Ltd was recently granted a six month extension to its existing lease on the hall which had been due to end this month.
This needs to be ratified first by Dumfries and Galloway Council’s common good sub-committee next Wednesday – and then rubber-stamped by the finance, procurement and transformation committee the following day.
Paul McCulloch, the council’s property, estates and programmes manager, produced a report on the reduced rental charge.
He wrote: “The terms are deemed to be at less than best consideration as the rental fee does not fall within 75 percent of what could be reasonably obtained on the open market.
“However, securing an extended licence period will ensure that the hall remains open, heated and maintained whilst the longer-term future is determined.”
Meanwhile, the longer term future of Loreburn Hall is to be determined by the summer.
Interested parties will be invited to apply and include details of their proposals and lease length, the level of investment proposed and a detailed business plan as part of their submission.
This will allow the council to “properly assess competing bids in determining any proposed community benefits” presented by any organisation.
The successful applicant will be selected at the common good sub-committee in June and put forward for ratification to the council’s finance committee later that month.
