MOFFAT’S Proudfoot Institute could end up abandoned as negotiations between The Proudfoot Indoor Sports and Social Club (PISC) and Dumfries and Galloway Council have broken down.
The historic building is currently occupied rent free by PISC with its facilities regularly used by 30 other groups and clubs for meetings and social gatherings.
But the club has been locked in a back and forth with the legal arm of the council over a long-term lease for the building, which would see the club assume full financial responsibility for the PI’s maintenance and pay rent to the Proudfoot Institute Endowment Trust – which is made up of all 43 of the region’s elected councillors.
To complicate things though, Dumfries and Galloway Council have previously stated they no longer have any responsibility for the upkeep or the status of the Proudfoot.
The legal entanglement has infuriated the club, who are claiming that they, along with the trust, have been misled.
PISC committee member David Booth this week said: “They [the council] have re-engineered all the legal work surrounding the Proudfoot so that the council no longer have a responsibility, with no dialogue with anyone, they just went off and did it.
“There is stuff that was put into the document that went before the full council in 2023 that was a lie, it stated that we had asked to take over the whole building and take on the recurring costs. Where the hell did they get that from?”
He has made two official complaints about false information: the first was not upheld, while the response to the second was that it could not be verified or investigated further due to retirement.
The club are now considering leaving the PI altogether unless a new agreement can be reached.
Mr Booth is not hopeful of that and added: “At the moment the eviction will happen because we will not sign a 25-year lease whereby we are responsible for the whole building. It will not happen.
“We still stand by the previously agreed heads of terms to do what we do now: paint the windows, clean the gutters and other small jobs.
“But what they’re saying now is that you have to take over the full and recurring costs, and the legal advice we got on that was ‘you must be joking, never ever sign that’.
“If we’re forced to walk away, we’ll have nowhere to go and all these clubs that use PI will disappear, and the building would go back to the trustees who’ll be the proud owners of a nice empty building in Moffat.”
The matter was further discussed at Tuesday’s meeting of Moffat and District Community Council.
Although no ward councillors were present, a statement from Annandale North Cllr Stephen Thompson was read aloud. It stated: “This is an ongoing complex situation, but I have asked to hold a meeting of the trust so that we can deal with this, the council legal team are assisting with this.
“In the meantime, a response to the tenant will be issued to explain when this will happen and allow a new set of heads of terms to be considered at a future meeting which will be arranged.”
However the promise of a meeting was not enough to appease either the club or community councillors.
Community council chair Liam O’Neill said: “The difficulties with the Proudfoot Institute are well known to everyone.
“The building was put in the care of the regional council in 1975 even though I and others involved at the time thought it was more appropriate for the district council to take it on.
“I have read some of the stuff that’s come through and I am quite surprised how it’s become a district matter again all of a sudden.
“We fully support the club’s position in this.”
Fellow community councillor Mick Barker added: “The members of the institute have done their best but we have both the management of the council and the elected members and they are conspicuous in their absence. There is no one willing to stand up either on behalf of the elected representatives or council management in front of us to explain what is going on and try and reach an amicable solution.”
In response a council spokesperson said yesterday: “Council officers have been in discussions with the Proudfoot Indoor Sports and Social Club to secure the long-term future of the Proudfoot Institute.
“A legal process is now underway on the future on the building and it would be inappropriate for the council to comment until this process has concluded.”
