A campaign backed by Hollywood star Gerard Butler to save a community garden has suffered a setback after the landowner asked for the site back.
Residents in Comrie have been trying to raise cash to buy Bumblebee Square to prevent it being turned into a supermarket and flats.
After raising £125,000 they have now been served with notice to quit, as owner William Frame wants it back. Bumblebee Square has been a community hub since 2010, when it was loaned to the village by Braemore Estates.
Mr Frame offered the community the chance to buy the land as an alternative to the planned development and the fundraising drive was supported by Butler, whose family lives in the village.
Mr Frame has now served notice to quit in preparation for submitting a planning application to the council.
He said: “I agreed three and a half years ago to let the community use the site on the understanding I would take it back when it was required and that time has now come.
“It should hardly come as a blow. I’m taking back what was mine in the first place. I never should have given it to them in the first place. I should have left it boarded up and it would have avoided this nonsense.”
A letter was sent to the local community council, which currently holds the lease, informing it that the lease will end in January 2014. Chairman Andrew Findlayson said the square would continue to operate as long as possible.
He said: “Despite the imminence of our quit date, we will be working in cooperation with Mr Frame, to ensure the Square remains functioning for as long as practicable into 2014, pending commencement of any building project.
“In the meantime, this apparent death knell for the square may yet galvanise some hitherto unexpected benefactors to come in and help save the day, though this is said with faint hope rather than expectation.”
Ted Henderson, treasurer of charity group Friends of the Square, added that talks to buy the site had broken down, with sides unable to agree a price for the land.
He said: “Currently we must await developments and have no immediate plans for a further fundraising campaign, especially in the absence of a target price.”