Moray Council has issued an apology for an “oversight” that lead to officers demanding money from a community group for maintenance work.
Aberlour Community Association recently took on the visitor centre at the village’s former railway station, already have welcomed hundreds of tourists.
But last week the group spoke out against the council for attempting to apply an annual charge of up to £500 for maintenance work to a road neighbouring the venue.
The community group vowed not to pay the levy as it had not been mentioned during talks with council officers as they progressed with their community asset transfer.
Yesterday Moray Council formally withdrew its request for the group to pay the money, describing the demand as an “oversight”.
A council spokesman said: “We have apologised to the community association for what was an oversight, and our community asset transfer procedures have been amended to ensure such a situation does not arise in future.”
Last night Hugh Fraser, of the community association, applauded the council on its decision – saying the group would have fought the request “to the very end”.
Mr Fraser said: “I think it’s great that they have apologised, but to impose that request in the first place was not very professional of Moray Council.
“It was a wee bit off to throw that at us at the last minute, without any prior discussions.
“We’re very pleased they have admitted they were wrong.
“Aberlour Community Association was going to fight the request to the very end.”
Speyside and Glenlivet councillor Pearl Paul raised the issue with Moray Council’s corporate director Mark Palmer at a meeting last week.
She said the council “needed to get its act together on this.”
Mr Palmer said the council was still learning how to handle community asset transfers, and described the dispute with the Aberlour group as “extremely unfortunate”.
The Aberlour Community Association was granted the community asset transfer in March, after receiving glowing reviews for its business plan.
The centre opened for the season on Thursday, April 2, and since then it has welcomed more than 600 visitors.