A PLANNED Angus glens ranger base is poised to go ahead thanks to renewed attempts to overcome past funding problems.

Angus Council hopes to start work on the £395,000 base at Glen Doll in September, with a planned opening in March 2008. It will replace Braedownie Farm House, some way from the car park and picnic site, used by rangers since the service began in 1998.

The council has recorded ever more hill walkers, tourists and educational groups visiting the glens, with more than 75,000 people using the facilities at Glen Doll each year.

Proposals for a ranger centre emerged three years ago, when a viability study was approved. It led to plans for a flagship base but it hit the skids after a bid for EU funding failed last year.

The bid for more than £200,000 was initially approved by the EU, but a lack of cash saw the plan relegated to a reserve list. The council refused to let the project die, designing a timber-built base with recep- tion area, project room, rangers’ office, mess, storage and public toilets.

The council has applied for grants from Cairngorms National Park Authority, Forestry Commission Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage. The funding package has not yet been confirmed, said a council spokeswoman, who added that the project had not yet gone out to tender. For such a scheme, the council promotes it through a notice of intention to develop, which has not yet been issued.

The council added the development is aimed at enabling rangers to improve the service to visitors and manage the site better.