The cafe at Ae forest closed recently. FLS have deemed the building as "not fit for purpose" apparently. There may be other reasons.
The Ae forest trail association are campaining to have some form of cafe facility in place whether it be a mobile unit or use of the village hall.
If you have visited or were maybe planning a visit could you please fill in their survey. Thanks
Ae Bike Association on Facebook for the survey
AEBIKEASSOCIATION.CO.UK The cafe at Ae forest closed recently. FLS have deemed the building as "not fit for purpose" apparently. There may be other reasons.
It's because FLS havent got a clue. The cafe/shop could have been advertised far better, and, rather than their preferred 'you put a bid in', they could have marketed/rented it out at, say, £150 a week, but no, they want a business plan, and anyone applying has to show how they can improve the 'forest experience'. Now, because no potential tenant is interested in their form filling requirements, the cafe is shut, and likely to remain so. The previous Tenant was quite happy to leave all the cafe equipment there when they left, and rent it out at a low fee. Because there was no new tenant, it has all been sold off, so anyone new would have to spend £1k's (£7-8k?) on new equipment before they opened up.
The building is now locked up, so no toilet facilities, apart from the 3 portaloos that have been put in place. Now FLS are paying the weekly rental charge for the toilets, as well as having no income from the cafe. Renting the cafe out at a low rent would stop the portaloo rental, keep the site more secure, encourage more people to go there, save FLS money, and generally make the forest a better place to visit. But dont worry, Glentress has had a lot of money spent on it, so all the Ae Users can go there.
They've done the same with the Forestry offices they vacated over a year ago at Ae. Left empty, now they are damp and deteriorating. Those offices could have been rented out cheaply to local Companies, but FLS arent interested, so just leave them to get to the point where they are beyond use. There must be some plan behind it, but no-one outside FLS can see what it is yet.
Nice level plot for lodges?
FLS in behaving like an Edinburgh based beaurictatic government quango, rather than locally and flexibly shocker...
FLS could do with recruiting someone to run their ‘visitor experience’ side, like Forestry England have done - rather than having a bunch of loggers in charge.
They do seem to be stuck in a rut of thinking my-ball-my-rules and they have no interest in letting anyone else get involved for fear of being shown up.
It is absolutely mad, but they just can't allow anyone to get any credit so they do what little they appear to do themselves and then things deteriorate as there are ongoing costs that appear to have been forgotten about and then can't be covered...
The thinking that everyone can drive to Tweed Valley is also hilariously daft, but that is what they want to happen...
They keep getting burnt fingers but they don't seem to learn - get other involved and share the costs and credits and keep things progressing as there are plenty people wanting to make things work and improve them, but there any wanting to get stifled or stiffed.
