A TWENTY-five year lease for the Goods Shed in Tetbury, which is still being developed, has been agreed by Tetbury Town Council.

As part of the lease, the town council, which owns the Goods Shed building, will receive five years of peppercorn rent (£1 each year), after which they will receive £5000 of annual rent and 25 per cent of the art centre’s profit share.

Councillors agreed to the terms of the lease at a town council meeting on Monday, September 26.

Will Cook, chairman of Tetbury Rail Lands Regeneration Trust, leader of the Goods Shed project, said at the meeting: “We really need money to get going for the first five years. Money is put into the asset and facilities for the town.

“We’ve already sold over 100 seats. The project has gone really well.”

Cllr Colin Pearce however was skeptical about the peppercorn rent for the arts centre’s first five years.

He said: “We have seen all the arguments from certain parts of the town about the Goods Shed so we need to be very careful about it.”

Other councillors said that a lot of work was already being done by the trust, and operational costs were going to be paid for by the trust.