Club score 25-year lease with pitch-perfect deal

Royal Albert FC have scored a home win and are building for the future after successfully netting long-term possession of their Tileworks Park ground.

- JUDITH TONNER

The Stonehouse club has been granted a 25-year lease of the pitches and pavilion on Union Street after their community asset transfer application was unanimously approved by councillors on South Lanarkshire’s housing committee, following a successful interim lease.

Young players and volunteers were also celebrating double success with a welcome £1000 donation from housebuilder Persimmon which will allow the club to introduce four new teams to its youth academy, while a new walking football team has also been launched

Volunteers at the long-established club have been running the facilities at Tileworks, their home ground for the past decade, on an interim basis since last September after it was announced as one of 35 venues across South Lanarkshire which would no longer be operated by the authority's leisure and culture arm.

Now councillors have agreed that the West of Scotland league outfit be awarded a 25-year lease at a peppercorn rent to occupy, use and maintain the ground’s five pitches, changing pavilion and car parking spaces.

Albert FC committee member Ross Thomson said: “Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point - the support we have received from the community has been remarkable, and the hard work starts now for us.