THE chair of the Tillicoultry Community Council has announced he will be resigning from his post after long-promised funding was once again delayed.

Damian Sherwood-Johnson tendered his resignation after a grant designated to be used to redevelop Tillicoultry's high street was delayed until 2026 at the earliest.

The £500,000 grant formed part of the Village and Small Town Centres Initiative, which has already been used to enhance Clackmannanshire over the last ten years.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Damian said he will be stepping down in May, partly due to the council's decision to delay the funding yet again.

"For me, personally, I don't think it was an effective working partnership," Damian said. "We weren't communicating effectively.

"We were supposed to get the funding about three or four years ago, but we kept getting trumped by other priorities.

"We were assured time and time again that it was going to be this year so we had started to do consultation only to discover it has been pushed back to 2026-27 and then 2027-28 for the second instalment."

The Village and Small Town Centre Initiative was put together to improve the main streets of areas around Clackmannanshire.

Sauchie was the first town centre to be revitalised, with work focusing on updating paths, installing energy efficient street lights and refurbishing some building exteriors.

Works quickly followed with areas in Clackmannan, Alva and Tullibody benefitting from the grant.

Tillicoultry was announced to be the next phase of the project in October 2014, before a series of delays meant that the work was pushed back to 2023.

Damian and others were in the process of speaking with the community about the works when the latest delay was confirmed.

He said: "We were just getting into consultations to find out what people wanted out of the development.

"We were looking at upgrading bus shelters and developing shared green spaces.

"I'm just dismayed and disappointed," Damian added. "Some of that expectation that we created within the community isn't going to be realised now."

In response, Cllr Fiona Law, spokesperson for environment, highlighted of the "extremely difficult" task of setting a balanced budget for 2023-24.

She continued: "Delaying the improvement plans for Tillicoultry town centre was a tough decision, but we had to focus spending in the coming year on the Wellbeing Hub and the new Lochies School.

"The council is fully supportive of the Tillicoultry town centre improvement plan and should funding become available sooner than programmed, we will work to have this directed to the project."

Work is currently commencing on the new Wellbeing Hub to open in Alloa, a replacement for the Leisure Bowl which is currently being demolished.