A Moray sports club is poised to take ownership of a strip of wasteland with the hope of boosting visitor numbers.
Bowlers in Tomintoul want to revitalise the area at the end of the bowling green from a bed of tangled weeds into a picnic area with wildflowers.
The group’s proposals will be scrutinised today with councillors recommended to approve handing over the land, which is used as a car park.
The club also owns a nearby caravan park and Michael Budd, secretary of Tomintoul and Glenlivet Outdoor Bowling Club, is hopeful the plans can boost tourist numbers to the village.
He said: “It’s not a big caravan park, there’s only five caravans, but there is a big need for them in the village.
“People like to come to Tomintoul because of the mystique of the name. A lot of them already stop in the car park and a few of the members thought, ‘Let’s make it an attractive place for them to come to for a picnic’.
“We don’t want to fence it off or anything like that. We’ll have wild flowers and a bird table. It could also free up parking space on Main Street.”
The Crown Estate originally donated the land to the village in the 1970s with the intention of establishing a bowling green.
After going through different incarnations the current group has been running since 1997. Initially the club applied to Moray Council for ownership of the green but subsequently added the 23-metre stretch of derelict land to their bid.
Mr Budd said: “It’s just been used for rubbish and as a dumping ground really. It looks like it’s been forgotten about. We want to get it back for the village for its intended use and possibly allotments.”
Moray Council has valued the land at £36,000 but stands to save about £2,600 a year from reduced loans charges.
The authority’s asset management coordinator, Andrew Gray, has recommended that councillors transfer ownership of the land to the club at the meeting of the policy and resources committee today.
He said: “The bowling club does not have sufficient reserves to pay market value and the benefits to the community arising from the transfer would be greater than the economic loss to the council.”