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14th February 2024
Something in the system is awry. A community trust in Arisaig builds six badly needed new homes for local people and local MSP, Kate Forbes, describes the community’s effort as Herculean. Well intended praise no doubt but why must that effort be so Herculean? At a community landowners’ event in the Scottish Parliament last week, Huntly Development Trust’s frustration that it had taken all of 6 years to get the required permissions to erect a single wind turbine came as a surprise to no one. At a debate last year in the Scottish Parliament, MSP after MSP extolled the virtues of their local men’s shed – lives changed and untold amounts saved for the NHS – and yet, for the lack of what is loose change down the back of the Scottish Government’s sofa, the organisation that makes all that happen is being jeopardised. This is not about money. This is about a mindset and whether there is a sufficient will to help our sector to thrive. I don’t believe any public servant comes to work with the express intention of making life difficult for the communities they work with. But something in the system has created a culture that most certainly does.
In the most recent briefing…
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On the ground
Read moreIn an era where good design seems an increasing rarity, and where every new housing development resembles every other housing development, it’s always worth noting when design awards are being handed out and especially when they celebrate community-led built environment design projects. This year’s finalists in the My Place Awards include a converted public toilet, a pocket park on some disused land and an overgrown tennis court and crumbling pavilion that now present as Scotland’s first eco -urban croft. As all these projects prove, good design should be for everyone to enjoy.
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On the ground
Read moreThe Assynt Crofters will always be remembered for transforming the narrative about who can own the land we live on. It’s 30 years since the Assynt Crofters’ Trust purchased their land from the Vestey family, paving the way for so many others to follow. But the history of community ownership is much older than that. 100 years ago, the Stornoway Trust was formed when the townsfolk accepted the gift of land from industrialist and philanthropist, Lord Leverhulme. This remarkable story will be one of many collected by a recently launched oral history project. Look out for a yellow campervan.
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On the ground
Read moreHighland Council, like most councils, has a financial blackhole that they are struggling to resolve. Postponing its programme of school modernisation may be one solution and that prospect has pushed some communities to consider following the example of the Strontian parents in Ardnamurchan who built their own school and now lease it back to the council. The Strontian community’s view back then was that if they lost their school, it would only accelerate their declining population. Initially sceptical, Highland Council were finally convinced by the merits of the community’s argument. It’s the kind of council-community partnership we need more of.
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Policy talk
Read moreDespite commitments from successive governments to reform council tax, for one reason or another, when the devil meets the detail of what that reform might look like, the plans always get shelved. The options are undoubtedly complex but everyone agrees that the first step must be a complete revaluation of all domestic properties on which the current system is based. It’s more than three decades since the last revaluation. STUC has coordinated an open letter to all political parties calling for this revaluation while Andy Wightman has helpfully proposed the means of delivering it. Time to bite the bullet.
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Policy talk
Read moreI own a copy of Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful : A Study of Economics As If People Mattered but confess to not having read it from cover to cover (it’s a short book so there’s no excuse). I somewhat lazily use the book as a proxy for my belief that community scale activity should be the starting point for all our systems of democracy and economic activity. The book has just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its publication and a number of writers and academics (who undoubtedly have read it) have been reflecting on the continued relevance of its message
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Policy talk
Read moreood health has its own intrinsic value because it enables those who have it to live a more enjoyable life, free of pain and discomfort. The relationship between economic prosperity and physical and mental health is long established but the trend is not equal across the country. Those areas that are most economically disadvantaged and also with the poorest health are getting poorer and sicker more quickly than other areas. Some work by IPPR’s Commission on Health and Prosperity explores whether delivering better health outcomes could also provide answers to the most deep rooted economic challenges we face.
Featured anchor organisation:
South Seeds
South Seeds is based in the heart of Glasgow’s southside on the high street. It supports residents to live more sustainable lives in one of Scotland’s most densely populated areas. The Southside Tool Library is very popular with over 500 items on its inventory. Each year South Seeds offers residents the opportunity to adopt-a-raised bed in its community garden. South Seeds energy officers support residents to reduce their energy bills. South Seeds is developing the vacant Old Changing Rooms on a recreation ground in to a net zero hub for community use.
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