Plans for a sensory garden near the Hawkhill Community Centre have been scrapped after a clash of personalities.

The proposal by Alloa man James Horne included a picnic area, raised beds, a summer house and a chicken coop.

Along with fellow Hawkhill resident, Eveline McLure, he formed a 15-strong voluntary group, including a landscape gardener, and applied for £34,000 of funding to create the project. In order to finalise the applications it needed permission from the landowner.

However, Hawkhill Community Association, which holds the title deeds to the community land, refused to give consent unless it received details of the group’s finances and constitution to ensure it would not default on the project and leave the association liable.

The group refused to give those details to the association – claiming it did not trust the executive committee to follow through.

The stalemate ended in June when the funding applications were withdrawn by the group and the project was binned with both sides blaming each other for a lack of communication and progress.

Mr Horne said, “We had no choice as they wouldn’t give us a letter to state it is community ground. I didn’t want to pull out of this but they left me no choice.” It is not the first time Mr Horne has been involved with the association and community centre having been one of the founders of support group, Man Up. He continued, “We are trying to better the place. I’m sick of people saying that it’s a very deprived area. All I can do is apologise to the people of Hawkhill. A lot of people were looking forward to this happening but without the correspondence from the centre we can’t do it.” Hawkhill Community Association, which runs the centre, is currently fighting for survival after it lost out on £36,013 of Clackmannanshire Council funding earlier this year.

Chairperson Elma O’Neill said the association would not have had the funds to complete the garden if the project had defaulted.

She said, “The garden was discussed at committee meetings and the committee were all in favour of it. If they (the group) had come with everything we asked for we would have helped them out wherever we could.

“We’ve not got the money for a sensory garden – we are trying to save a centre here.”