Author: hebrideswriter.com

EDF Energy are hoping to put giant turbines, of the size normally sited offshore, on their wind farm sites on the Isle of Lewis.

The turbines being planned by EDF would be up to 200 metres tall – the same size as those currently being built in the North Sea and far higher than any structures that exist on land in Scotland.

There are no onshore turbines of this magnitude anywhere in the UK.

The biggest turbines onshore in the UK at present are 130 metres, with most of the present Lewis turbines being around 125 metres.

The tallest building in the UK is The Shard, at 306 metres. It has 95 storeys, so a 200-metre turbine would be the equivalent of a 62-storey building. Scotland’s tallest building is the Glasgow Tower, at 127 metres.

EDF, as part of ‘Lewis Wind Power’ with project partners Wood Group, have planning permission for 91 turbines in Lewis.

Of these, 45 turbines are approved for their Uisenis Wind Farm, which is due to be built on the Eishken Estate and approaches the border of the South Lewis, Harris and North Uist National Scenic Area.

The other 36 turbines are the Stornoway Wind Farm ones – the turbines planned for the Stornoway General area of mainly common grazings land out the Pentland Road. The Stornoway Wind Farm is already controversial, being the subject of more than 200 objections to the Scottish Land Court.

It is also under fire because a group of crofting townships want to develop their own wind farm projects on some of these sites leased by EDF from the Stornoway Trust – but which form part of the townships’ own common grazings.

Rhoda MacKenzie, spokesman for the ‘gang of four’ grazings committees who want to develop the community-owned schemes, said EDF’s new plans were “staggering”.

She also pointed out that these new ‘superturbines’ would mean there would be no room left on any interconnector for community schemes – as any capacity that had been available for the export of power from additional schemes would now be taken up by the Lewis Wind Power projects and the Riverstone/Forsa one in Tolsta.

The revelation about Lewis Wind Power’s intention came today (Monday), in the form of an email from EDF’s Kerry MacPhee, who is the community liaison for LWP.

The email was sent to councillors and grazings committee clerks, among others.

It coincided with a high-level meeting, in the offices of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, about the planned changes to the schemes. The meeting was attended by representatives from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Lewis Wind Power, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Scottish Government.

In her email, Kerry said she was “writing to let you know in advance about a new activity by Lewis Wind Power to assess the option of using an increased turbine size on both the Uisenis and Stornoway wind farms”.

She revealed this activity began today (April 30) “with a meeting led by the Scottish Government’s energy consents unit at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, with representatives from CNES, LWP, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Scottish Government.”

She added: “The company is also planning a series of exhibitions and engagement events to give local people the chance to find out more and to give their own thoughts on the possible changes.”

Giving detail, she said: “Lewis Wind Power is in the very early stages of exploring potential changes to its proposed wind farms at Stornoway and Uisenis

“These initiatives are intended to make sure that we look at all the potential ways to boost the projects’ chances of winning future auctions for low carbon electricity.

“The efficiency improvements being explored could mean we see the wind farms producing electricity at an even more competitive price for UK consumers.

“The original project consents remain in place, but two additional options are being explored. The first possible option would be to keep all aspects of the existing layouts and planning consents, but to seek a variation to allow the project to use larger generators within each of the wind turbines.

“The second option being considered is to seek a fresh planning consent for larger turbines and a revised layout. This may mean fewer turbines being built but the overall generating capacity of the sites would be increased.

“Taller turbines mean more efficiency and fewer machines.

“The company is considering turbines of up to 200m at Uisenis, up from 150m at present and all the same size.

“On Stornoway we will be assessing the potential for tip heights of up to 187m on some turbines, an increase on the 145m models outlined in the current consent, with smaller turbines closer to the town.”

As the two projects make up nearly 90 per cent of the consented wind projects in development on Lewis, Kerry claimed they were “central to the business case for the new grid connection to the mainland”.

Community wind farm campaigners reacted with outrage to EDF’s scaled-up ambitions.

Calum Macdonald, former Western Isles MP and developer of Point and Sandwick Trust’s Beinn Ghrideag scheme, said: “The size of the proposed new turbines being considered by EDF is simply staggering.

“These are the same size as the gigantic offshore turbines that are now being built in the North Sea.

“They are out to sea for a good reason which is that their enormous size is thought to make them unacceptable anywhere onshore, far less near a town like Stornoway or near an iconic location like Loch Seaforth.   

“It is baffling that EDF are considering such a massive change of plan at such a late stage, especially when they spent recent months lecturing local crofters that it was far too late in the day to have their plans for community turbines taken into account.

“If EDF and the Council are giving any serious consideration to this new scheme, the first thing they should be doing is not talking to SNH and SEPA but talking to the crofters whose land it is. The crofting villages should be the first to be consulted and the Council should be supporting them instead of what appear to be completely unrealistic new EDF turbines.”

Rhoda MacKenzie said: “I’m just astounded. The big thing about the interconnector was that there was going to be 200MW left for community capacity.

“If they up the ante, which they are obviously going to do, there goes that 200MW, so this interconnector is purely for EDF, Wood Group and Forsa.

“They are on about the community benefit but weigh that up in terms of the losses.

“It’s going to have a detrimental effect on tourism. The largest wind turbines in the UK? I hardly think that’s going to bring people here.

“The island and the community have been sold out to multinationals who are now increasing their demands because they see that they are getting what they want in every corner.

“Nobody, apart from a few councillors and Stornoway Trust trustees, has come up to me and said they are all for EDF.

“They mentioned having a meeting with the community to explain. Well, what for? Why are they bothering because nothing the community says is going to effect any change on what they do. They haven’t shown, to date, that they want to engage with the communities in any way, so why bother having these meetings?

“It’s just a tick-box exercise. I think EDF have boxed very clever and I think they have had things handed to them on a plate. It’s absolutely staggering.

“They knocked back the original scheme on the West Side because of the size but this development is slowly creeping up to the same size as the previous development was. They are taking it up to the very perimeter of the 600MW.

“To date, every dialogue we’ve had with Angus Brendan MacNeil and Alasdair Allan (about this) has been the same mantra – ‘oh, we’ll get the interconnector first and then there’s 200MW for the community…’

“Well where do they stand tonight on that?

“If they are putting an interconnector in here, it’s for EDF.

“We don’t know that the Trust or the Council are going to have any income from this and we don’t want it at any cost.

“When it starts getting into superturbines, that’s intrusive. It’s intrusive for the people that live near them. It’s intrusive to the landscape.

“They are now blatantly riding roughshod over us and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop them apart from political pressure.”

Author: VAS

The Culture Strategy for Scotland Engagement Report

We take a look at how your views and the valuable contribution of voluntary-led creative activity has been recognised in the Cultural Strategy Engagement Report. . .

As well as providing resources and support to voluntary arts groups, a key part of Voluntary Arts Scotland’s remit is to champion and advocate on behalf of the 10,000+ community-led creative groups in Scotland.

Toward the end of 2017, the Voluntary Arts Scotland team was out and about across Scotland, meeting with community-led groups to gather your thoughts on what a Scottish Government Culture Strategy should look like. From Selkirk to Stornoway, groups shared their thoughts about what they needed to thrive.

You told us about some of the challenges you face (venues closing, complicated funding applications, struggles to reach local decision-makers and wrestles with legislation), as well as what’s working well (we gathered stories of community ownership, thriving partnership and innovative uses of unexpected places and spaces). You also shared your perspectives about why community-led creative groups are so important, and about their impact on creating vibrant, inclusive, connected places.

You can read more about the feedback we gathered here.

We fed all of your feedback into the Scottish Government’s consultation process at the end of 2017 and earlier this month, the Government published their Engagement Report, ‘an overview of the main themes and ideas that emerged across all the engagement events, [which] will inform a draft strategy’.

We were delighted to see that the voices of the groups we support came through loud and clear in this Engagement Report. The report recommends that “the notion of culture should be expanded to allow the everyday and informal, grassroots and emerging forms of culture to be held in equal value with the more visible, formal and established”, and highlights that “many wanted more support for small projects, developed and delivered locally which were believed to make a tremendous difference to a community and which were felt to potentially have more impact and be more accessible than arts delivered at the national level through national institutions”. 

The concerns and challenges facing groups were noted too: “Some contributors suggested that lack of availability or poor access to cultural spaces, facilities and building… hampered cultural participation”, and “there was general support for mechanisms which will help to ensure that communities are actively included in cultural decision-making in their local area”.

Perhaps most cheeringly, “it was widely agreed that cultural activity at grassroots level also contributes to community strength, place-making and a sense of pride and confidence. Contributors felt that there is a need to better understand and support grassroots activity and to provide groups at grassroots level with more mechanisms to influence strategy and decision-making locally and nationally. There was a call not to overlook the small scale and grassroots by overly focusing on the big, static, formal and institutional level”.

This is still early days for the strategy, and we’ll be continuing to champion the value of voluntary-led creative groups, to make sure our part of the creative sector get the support and recognition it deserves. We’ll keep you posted on developments and opportunities to contribute to Scotland’s Cultural Strategy!

Meanwhile, thank you so much to all the people, groups and organisations who’ve taken the time to share your stories with us. Here’s to a bright and creative future!

Author: Campbeltown Picture House

Campbeltown Picture House is one of the first purpose built cinemas in Scotland, built in 1913.

It survives today as a rare space, largely unaltered from the 1935 remodelling by the original architect Albert V. Gardner – complete with an art nouveau exterior and an equally impressive and unusual ‘atmospheric style’ interior.

The Centenary Project was completed in December 2017, creating a modern cinema destination complete with a second screen, new foyer and café, and spaces for exhibitions, displays, education and community activities.

The restoration project included:

Restoration of the historic auditorium; including modern heating, ventilation and seating.

Restoration of the unique art nouveau frontage of the building.

Transformation of the annexe to provide a new, contemporary foyer and café.

Creation of the multi-purpose exhibition space/meeting room/education room/green room.

Creation of a second state-of-the-art cinema auditorium in the rear courtyard complementing the historic cinema and providing programming flexibility.

A programme of heritage interpretation and education activities focused on the history of the Picture House, of cinema, and of Campbeltown’s social and cultural life.

Improved energy use throughout the venue including a modern efficient central heating system powered by a biomass wood-pellet boiler, extensive insulation, and a 40Kw photo-voltaic array on the roof.

Increased storage space for equipment, materials and furniture to support educational activities and business meetings.

Improved accessibility throughout.

Also included are three spaces available for hire that allows them to host private screenings, corporate events, meetings, social groups, conferences and birthday parties.

The picture house is owned by Campbeltown Community Business Ltd (CCB), a social enterprise committed to transforming the cinema into the principal cultural and entertainment venue for Kintyre. For further info, contact: 

Email: info@campbeltownpicturehouse.co.uk 

Website: www.campbeltownpicturehouse.co.uk

Author: Margaret Wheatley

What This World Needs

This world does not need more entrepreneurs.

This world does not need more technology breakthroughs.

This world needs leaders.

We need leaders who put service over self, who can be steadfast through crises and failures, who want to stay present and make a difference to the people, situations, and causes they care about.

We need leaders who are committed to serving people, who recognize what is being lost in the haste to dominate, ignore, and abuse the human spirit.

We need leaders because leadership has been debased as those who take things to scale or are first to market or dominate the competition or develop killer apps. Or hold onto power by constantly tightening their stranglehold of fear until people are left lifeless and cowering.

We need leaders now because we have failed to implement what was known to work, what would have prevented or mitigated the rise of hatred, violence, poverty, and ecological destruction. We have not failed from a lack of ideas and technologies. We have failed from a lack of will. The solutions we needed were already here.

Now it is too late. We cannot solve these global issues globally. We can see them clearly. We can understand their root causes. We have evidence of solutions that would have solved them. But we refused to compromise, to collaborate, to persevere in resolving them as an intelligent, creative species living on one precious planet.

Now it’s up to us, not as global leaders but as local leaders. We can lead people to create positive changes locally that make life easier and more sustainable, that create possibility in the midst of global decline.

Let us use whatever power and influence we have, working with whatever resources are already available, mobilizing the people who are with us to work for what they care about.

As President Teddy Roosevelt enjoined us: Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

To read an introduction to the book, click here

Author: The Guardian

Europe’s first national government-backed experiment in giving citizens free cash will end next year after Finland decided not to extend its widely publicised basic income trial and to explore alternative welfare schemes instead.

Since January 2017, a random sample of 2,000 unemployed people aged 25 to 58 have been paid a monthly €560 (£475) , with no requirement to seek or accept employment. Any recipients who took a job continued to receive the same amount.

The government has turned down a request for extra funding from Kela, the Finnish social security agency, to expand the two-year pilot to a group of employees this year, and said payments to current participants will end next January.

It has also introduced legislation making some benefits for unemployed people contingent on taking training or working at least 18 hours in three months. “The government is making changes taking the system away from basic income,” Kela’s Miska Simanainen told the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

The scheme – aimed primarily at seeing whether a guaranteed income might incentivise people to take up paid work by smoothing out gaps in the welfare system – is strictly speaking not a universal basic income (UBI) trial, because the payments are made to a restricted group and are not enough to live on.

But it was hoped it would shed light on policy issues such as whether an unconditional payment might reduce anxiety among recipients and allow the government to simplify a complex social security system that is struggling to cope with a fast-moving and insecure labour market.

Olli Kangas, an expert involved in the trial, told the Finnish public broadcaster YLE: “Two years is too short a period to be able to draw extensive conclusions from such a big experiment. We should have had extra time and more money to achieve reliable results.”

The idea of UBI – appealing both to the left, which hopes it can cut poverty and inequality, and to the right, which sees it as a possible route to a leaner, less bureaucratic welfare system – has gained traction recently amid predictions that automation could threaten up to a third of current jobs.

The Finnish finance minister, Petteri Orpo, told Hufvudstadsbladet he was looking into trialling alternative welfare schemes, including a universal credit system similar to that being introduced in the UK, when the basic income pilot ends.

Author: The Ferret, by Billy Briggs

Taxpayers’ money amounting to more than £52m was given to companies in Scotland that were later liquidated, dissolved or put into administration over the past five years, The Ferret can reveal.

The total – £52,660,177 – was calculated after a response to a freedom of information request provided by Scottish Enterprise (SE), a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government and the nation’s main economic development agency.

Opposition parties said that the figure of £52m plus was “deeply concerning” with Scottish Labour calling on the Scottish Government to urgently review SE’s due diligence practices.

The ferret subscribe narrow

In reply, however, SE said its role “is to take financial risks” to generate return, adding that it always undertakes “robust due diligence”.

We asked for details of SE grants to Scottish companies in the five year period up to 28th July 2017 and cross referenced this data with information on Companies House.

Companies given taxpayers’ money who later collapsed included a venture called Team Rock, which ran a stable of heavy rock magazines.

In December 2016, it was reported that more than 70 people had been laid off after Team Rock Limited collapsed. A total of 27 staff in High Blantyre and 46 in London were made redundant.

Its titles and brands included Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, the Golden Gods Awards and the Classic Rock Awards. Team Rock received £2,399,999 from the taxpayer.

A tech firm called Red Fox Media Limited, from Edinburgh, was given £675,000. It was involved in publishing and advertising but went into administration in 2017.

Ateeda Limited was given £1,011,779 and was in the news in 2014 when it emerged that companies which former Scottish Enterprise chairman Crawford Gillies owned shares in had received millions of pounds of investment from SE.

Mr Gillies was a shareholder in microchip tester Ateeda which folded in 2017.

Vanilla Energy Limited was set up on 19 February 2008 and had its registered office in Edinburgh. It was wound up in 2016 after receiving £400,000.

Likewise, Peekabu Studios Limited was founded on 2010 but folded in 2017 after receiving £100,000.

Commenting on The Ferret’s investigation, Scottish Labour’s economy spokesperson Jackie Baillie MSP said: “This is an astonishing amount of taxpayers’ money that has seemingly been given to firms with little long-term benefit for the Scottish economy.

“Of course every investment is a risk and it’s important that businesses get the support they need, but to have taxpayers’ money pumped into firms only for them to go bust raises serious questions about due diligence by Scottish Enterprise.

“The SNP must urgently commit to reviewing Scottish Enterprise’s practices to ensure proper due diligence is taking place and taxpayers’ money is being put to good use.”

But SE defended its grants and said its role was to develop the Scottish economy which involved taking financial risks.

A spokesperson continued: “In doing this, we’ve supported some of the country’s fastest-growing companies, including Scottish ‘unicorns’ FanDuel and Skyscanner.

“Before we invest public funds, we undertake robust due diligence to ensure we balance the inevitable risks with the scale and prospect of economic returns.

“We have robust processes and criteria that must be met by companies seeking our financial support. However, the nature of business growth means that some companies will fail in the end, despite our support.

“When we invest or award a grant to a company that subsequently fails, we always attempt to recover the appropriate public funding.

“We recognise that business failure is part of the economic landscape, with companies that fail still generating economic impact over their lifetimes through wages, income taxes raised directly, IP created and jobs supported through the supply chain.”

Another firm to receive taxpayers’ money was Freescale Semiconductor Holding UK Ltd. It was awarded £2,589,050 but was liquidated in December 2017.

A waste water recycling firm called ReAqua Systems Limited received £1,475,000 but was wound up in 2015.

Pelamis Wave Power Limited was given £7, 238, 602 but was dissolved in 2014. It was viewed as an icon on marine renewables industry but failed to secure funding to develop.

The Edinburgh-based firm was testing its wave energy converters at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney for a number of years.

Announcing the administration move, the company said: “The directors of Pelamis regret to announce that they have been unable to secure the additional funding required for further development of the company’s market-leading wave energy technology.

Patrick Harvie MSP, of the Scottish Greens, also voiced concern over SE’s grants. He said: “At a time when public services are under severe pressure, the Scottish Government and it’s agencies cannot afford to throw cash around whenever the private sector holds out its hands and asks for more.

“When public money is invested in private businesses it must be on the basis of a fair return to the public purse. No other investor would expect to be lavish with the chequebook and not expect a fair return.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Carolyn Caddick said: “There is always a risk of start-ups not making it and investments going wrong,” but added that the amount of lost money was “extremely disappointing.”

“The Scottish Government’s record for picking winners is looking pretty ropey. Of course, they did hand millions to Amazon despite the fact they pay workers below the proper Living Wage.

“The Scottish Government must ensure that stringent checks take place before they hand over a fat cheque.”

However, the Scottish Government’s Economy Secretary Keith Brown, defended SE’s grants and said: “Investing in job-creation and innovation is a vital part of supporting and growing the Scottish economy – it seems Labour, the Greens and Lib Dems are not interested in that and would cut funding to support companies.

“Obviously, there are no absolute guarantees on the viability of individual firms, but the overall impact of these grants can result in substantial economic gains for the country as a whole.”

Between 2012 and 2016, SE generated £74 million of income from its equity investment activities which were ploughed back into Scottish businesses.

The agency added that it invested £63.5m into 146 Scottish companies which leveraged a further £106m of private sector investment into these same firms in 2016/17.

In 2017, SE “innovation grants” secured £424 million of investment in new research and development activity in Scotland while generating £750 million of new revenue from innovation projects.

Author: Ewan Mclachlan

A couple of weeks ago Edinburgh hosted its second Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference in 11 years. The theme was Enhancing Rural Innovation. As Scotland is predominantly rural with the vast majority of us squeezed into the somewhat tight 3680 miles of the central belt out of our total 30,090 square miles, one might have thought our national press would be interested as to the outcomes of this conference that brought over 400 influential policy makers, academics, entrepreneurs, innovators, movers and shakers together in one place. The Scottish Farmer topped and tailed their two pieces from the OECD press releases, The Herald printed four chapters of the end of conference release amongst their farming news column and The Scotsman, which I believe is based in Edinburgh, printed absolutely nothing. However, they did have a Brian Wilson column that seemed to be incredibly angry about something SNPish…

Perhaps I’m being unfair on the poor reporting of the Scottish media, I too had my doubts about attending the conference in my somewhat no very well wee car. About an hour into my six and a half hours drive from the metropolis of Assynt to Morrison Street, Edinburgh I began to ponder why the OECD (that’ll be the Paris headquartered OECD) were hosting a conference on Enhancing Rural Innovation in the middle of the city centre at the EICC. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that that the EICC is an excellent purpose-built venue, with a few suites capable of holding a couple of hundred folk and a fancy auditorium for all manner of keynote speeches and important announcements for delegates. They also cater fab food served by friendly staff. I merely ponder why a conference all about rural sustainability couldn’t have bitten the bullet and headed for either Dornoch or Dalbeattie.

Think of the economic and social impact of having over 400 delegates from 30 countries in town for a three day conference might have had on an out-of-season rural area North or South of the Central Belt? Sure there aren’t many mega corporate hotels in Dornoch and I shudder at the thought that one day Dalbeattie will favour a Costa over the joy of the De Caff café. However, if the above suggestions were too rural, then why not the rural capitals of the North and South, Inverness has the Eden Court, Dumfries the Crichton Campus, both more than capable of hosting such large events and more importantly right in the heart of the plural rural.

My concerns were compounded when I glanced at an overhead display showing which sectors the delegates were currently representing. Over 50% government employees, a further 35% representing Non-governmental agencies, academia and charities followed by the business lobby at 10% and finally the remainder, the interested individuals like myself who were there on their own buck or inside the EICC avoiding the rain.

Fearing a self-congratulatory back slapping fest of polyglottal bureaucrats, I thought to myself, ‘ Och, I’ll just make the most of it’ and as we were ushered in to the first session exploring the ‘Smart Rural Communities’, a group of similarly minded pan-European rural based malcontents were soon discovered and the heavy bonding began. Grievances on the chasm-like disconnect between the rural and National, central and local government were poked at and probed.

The question of ‘trust’ came to the fore and slowly emerged as one of the major conference themes. Local communities (all volunteers), recognise problems in their communities, identify cost effective solutions and go cap in hand with smiley teeth to the first branch of local government, where rules, regulations, bureaucracy and above all else, fear hinders the path to a sensible solution.

Evaluations are required, business plans demanded and sundry other mechanisms are placed in the way of the folk who live with the problems. Volunteer time, effort, study and money are all spent, bending to accommodate the paid red tape requirements, when all are agreed, and plans submitted… Boosh, you’re told, “not good enough away and raise some money for an external consultant, you crazy bunch of amateurs you” or words to that effect.

Soon the money is found and the consultant re-crosses the T’s and dots the I’s with a touch of flair and multiple use of words and phrases like ‘bottom up’, ‘schematic’ and ‘diagenesis’. Before you know it, the cost of the project is spent on the consultant’s fees. Often this is the point when the community groups are told, “Sorry things are tight, there’s no money left, don’t forget to apply for the next round of funding in six months. By the way, do you mind filling in this evaluation form…”

A succession of worthy individuals from across the world took to the various stages to explain how they had tackled inequality, poverty, unemployment, social and cultural disconnection, a lack of affordable housing and halting the progress of the young leaving the rural never to return. Much of it, particularly from some of the academic cohorts, was basically technocratic babblese with the free Wi-Fi being handy as I searched for words rarely used outside of thought leader bubbles, the rest was well thought out and incredibly innovative.

Scotland was well represented among the speakers on subjects ranging from aquaculture, renewable energy the need to address the digital divide and tourism. Notable among the Scottish speakers was Amanda Bryan of the Eigg Trust and chair of the recently devolved Crown Estates Scotland who spoke passionately about community led social innovation and the need to encourage and captivate young people with innovation. Another enterprising Scot hailed from deepest Galloway, Duncan McConchie took the audience through his journey from a one man archery course to an outdoors activity centre, luxury pod and wedding venue via Zorbing, the longest zipwire in Europe and Duncan being the guinea pig for the world’s first human catapult. Think a big rubber band, harness and towed back to stretching point by a Land Rover and released. Boing! Laggan Outdoors is now a major employer and destination for visitors to Galloway. Much of their success was in applying creative thinking to the restrictions the local authorities planning panjandrums forced upon them and working with some of the more innovative folk at Scottish Enterprise who recognised the need to accept risk and work with innovators.

Delegates from Spain, Korea, Lapland, Newfoundland and Japan spoke about how they recognised the potential of the rural and were encouraging different takes on solving the usual problems.

It was only when the guest speaker Gunter Pauli gave his presentation that the faded ennui of conference life was shaken off. Pauli is the serial entrepreneur and author of ‘The Blue Economy’ which posits 100 innovations over a 10 year period will lead to 100 million jobs. Known as “The Steve Jobs of Sustainability”, he built the world’s first “ecological factory” when chairman of Ecover in 1992. Since then he’s been involved in subjects as diverse as the regeneration of the rainforest in Colombia, a maggot farm in Benin, the revolution of the beer industry in Patagonia via wild yeast and creating 300 companies around the world that farm mushrooms on a bed of coffee waste. These are merely the tip of the iceberg, ideas flow from and to Pauli.

My ears perked up when he spoke about an old, polluting, disused petrochemical plant in Sardinia that has saved Sardinian agriculture and created hundreds of jobs via a weed that also happens to be Scotland’s national flower, the humble thistle. Gardner’s around the world spend millions on weed killers trying to eradicate the tough resilient plant. In Scotland we see the thistle as a symbol, a badge of honour. MacDiarmid viewed Scotland askance as a drunken man looks at a thistle, but most of all we see it as a nuisance, something to be rooted out of thousands of front lawns all in the quest for gardening perfection. In Sardinia it’s the main component in the reconversion of a petrochemical facility into a bio-refiner that uses the plant to make plastic products that are all biodegradable and recyclable and will ultimately serve as fertilizers.

To make these bio plastics, oil is extracted from the plants seeds and mixed with sunflower oil. Nothing in the plant gets wasted: the leaves and stem are burnt to produce the energy needed to run the factory, and what remains becomes animal feed. Pauli tells the by now somewhat wide awake audience that thistle chemistry is elastomers, polymers, herbicides, lubricants, pausing to remind us that polymers can also be used in the creation of textiles. Among the products now made from the 360,000 tonnes of processed thistles that the Sardinian plant produces are coffee pods for Lavazza coffee, the guilt involved in discarding an aluminium or plastic coffee pod, gone in one simple biodegradable solution. After the various biochemists and engineers had decreed just what could be made from the thistle, one old Sardinian wifey told Pauli, she also uses the thistle to create the white powder that she rolls her goats cheese in…

Pauli’s enthusiasm for creating a better more sustainable planet is infectious. He reels off initiative after initiative that he’s involved in. These range from making batteries made from wood; animal feed protein production from fly larvae, stone transformed into paper, coffee turned into bio chemical’s that absorb odours and protect our skin from UV rays.

Some are so simple you wonder why the world of fishing and farming isn’t kicking themselves in their collective backsides. In Germany one pig farmer has his pigs and chickens living together. The pigs are happy, they have no infections, no ticks or parasites because the chickens groom them as source of food. It takes three days to potty train a piglet…three days, which means they are not living in their own waste. The waste of course is kept in one place and used in all manners of fertilisation for example. The chickens are abundant layers, they live year-round with the pigs, and lay eggs all year, benefitting from the body heat of the pigs in winter.

The Island of Hierra, one of the small almost forgotten Canarian Isles had decimated its fish stock a marine reserve was decreed to allow fish to repopulate, the practise of catching female fish was abandoned. It’s normal for fishermen around the world to catch females with eggs and throw them along with all other fish on freezing ice for market, separating the female from the male increases the fish stock. Pauli’s list is seemingly endless and grows simply because of a refusal to accept that great Scottish maxim, ‘That willnae work’.

I found myself enthused about the conference seeing it as an exchange of ideas, where those normally dressed in sombre office outfits could loosen up and listen to dreamers and the ambitious. The conference ended with a sort of pre-ordained set of objectives that have been decreed as the ten key drivers of rural change (see attached image) that have been identified as significant players over the coming 30 years. Each one of them masks a multitude of questions and hopefully innovative answers to the age old problems of making the rural sustainable.

I was a smidge perplexed when it dawned on me that a lot of the exciting proposals ahead were being advanced by delegates from EU member states. The very same EU we’re dead set on leaving despite voting in overwhelming numbers against Brexit in Scotland. I was lamenting on Brexit and the ending of so many EU opportunities for Scotland in conversation with a young feller who works for Rescoop the pan European federation of renewable energy cooperatives. Intent on continuing to work with Scottish hydro projects he said the best thing, “We’re an organisation that doesn’t recognise borders.”

Author: SCCS

People from around the world are urging Scotland to remain a global climate leader as the Government finalises their new Climate Change Bill. 100 individuals, including many directly impacted by climate change and those working to help tackle climate change, have taken photos with signs urging Scotland to “Give it 100%” in our efforts to cut emissions. Contributions include impassioned pleas from farmers in Africa, vulnerable communities in Asia, indigenous Arctic groups and Pacific Islanders.

The images and testimonies have been collected by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland. We received submissions from every inhabited continent backing their calls for Scotland to end climate pollution by 2050 at the latest.

The stories highlight how climate change is already impacting on livelihoods and the need for countries in leadership positions such as Scotland to show the required ambition to meet the Paris Climate Agreement. Many of those taking part give specific support for the call for a net zero emissions target by 2050 at the latest. 

Stella Miria-Robinson, Papua New Guinean Australian, Roving Ambassador for the Pacific Islands Council of Queensland,

“We stand to lose our homes, lose our countries, lose our identities as distinct Peoples of the Planet, lose our cultures, languages and familiar places. We do not want to be passport holders of countries that have disappeared. What happens in Europe, the US, China and Australia, for example, affects what happens climatically, in our Pacific Ocean. I hope Scotland, The Brave, will help to lead the way, through its commitment to a net zero carbon strategy and soon.”

Mork Nay & Veit Samin with their daughter,farmers in Cambodia. Mork Nay told us:

“In the past the weather was stable between the dry and rainy seasons.  Now we can’t predict it. Now it’s raining in the dry season and dry in the rainy season. When we lose our crops our income decreases and we lose our resources. In the past we know when the rain would come – and it would rain for a few days.  Now it comes and is very strong.”

“I’m really concerned that climate change is getting worse and I don’t know what to do to cope with it.  I’m not sure about the future. Now I don’t see a choice for our children but to farm, but I am concerned. I would like Scotland to continue helping us to cope with climate change. I would like to request developed countries like Scotland, who have big factories that produce a lot of pollution to stop polluting.  Frankly, it’s not just developed countries but we all need to stop pollution because many people in the world are responsible.”

Gertrude Hamooya is a small scale farmer in Zambia. She cultivates mainly maize and groundnuts but also keeps free range chickens. When asked why she thought Scotland should ‘give it 100%’, Gertrude said:

“Our lives have become harder as farmers due to climate change. The dry spell we experienced at the beginning of this season meant that our crops could not make it even when the rains finally came, because they the rains did come, they were too heavy such that even a few plants that could have made it were destroyed by the floods. Most of us won’t even harvest anything this year because of the rains coming at the wrong time of the year

The heavy rains have also destroyed the few roads we have in the area making it extremely difficult for us to transport anything or even to go the hospitals.”

“I think richer countries should also help sensitise us on the disadvantages of charcoal burning and also help train us in other businesses as a way of survival. They should also help us financially because they’re also contributing to climate change because of their industries.”

Sarah James from the Alaskan Arctic:

“My name is Sarah James from Arctic Village in Alaska 110 miles north east of Arctic Circle. We’re a caribou people, for over 20,000 years we have lived with Caribou. We take care of their feeding ground – caribou heart is in our heart and our heart is in the caribou. My people’s way of life is under threat. Climate change is a human rights issue.

I’d like to see Scotland take a lead on the environment because the indigenous people of the world we live in the land, we take care of the land and it takes care of us in return. We need to help each other to survive. It’s up to all of us to play our part to tackle climate change. It’s not a chore, it’s a responsibility.”

Author: Karin Goodwin, The Herald

A communty arts and development organisation in Dumfries is making a bid to take back control of its neglected town centre and become the first in Scotland to buy back its high street. It hopes to transform the down-at-heel centre into a bustling hub full of urban homes, social enterprises and local small businesses.

Proposals for the so-called Midsteeple quarter in the heart of the traditional market town in the south-west of Scotland would see members of the community buying back eight key buildings from private property owners, who it is claimed are “holding it to ransom” by demanding sky-high – and unaffordable – rents.

The proposal comes as research last week revealed new stores are opening on UK High Streets at their lowest rate in seven years. The Local Data Company, which studied the top 500 British town centres, found there were 4,083 new store openings in 2017, the lowest since 2010. The shop vacancy rate is now almost 12 per cent in towns across Scotland.

The Dumfries bid – driven by public arts organisation the Stove Network and backed by Dumfries and Galloway Council, the local housing association and others – aims to refurbish the vacant and increasingly derelict building in the heart of the town. Formerly used as retail outlets, many of the buildings – which have been abandoned for up to a decade – are owned by property portfolio companies who are demanding tens of thousands of pounds in annual rent despite the poor condition of the shop spaces.

It is inspired by rural land community buy-outs in places like Eigg, Assynt and Gigha, and would be the first “urban” buy-out.

At its launch last week, 300 people signed up to the community benefit company and to join the “Doon toon army”, who will also be involved in town clean-ups and events. Organisers hope that up to 2,000 people will sign up over the next year.

Members could eventually buy shares in the buildings if their owners can be persuaded – or compelled under community “right to buy” and empowerment legislation – to sell the buildings. One building owned by the council will be transferred into community ownership by 2020.

Matt Baker, director of the Stove Network, said: “We spent five years asking the same question of our community: what is the future of a 21st century market town if it’s not full of national chain stores? We had many different answers but the one that resounded with everyone was the desire to recreate a community in the town centre.

“Yet we are stuck in a jam. The buildings are owned by vacant landlords who are unprepared to invest in them or offer reasonable rents, so they are lying there empty. These landlords are holding our town to ransom. We saw an opportunity to take them on using the community empowerment legislation and to make history. We are taking back control of our high street.”

He added: “We want to negotiate with property owners and persuade them that these buildings have become a liability for them. Communities need flexibility and innovation. As artists what we are trying to do is put our head above the parapet and inspire and empower people.”

Plans, which could be replicated to save struggling high streets across Scotland, would see spaces for co-working and creative studios, an “innovation centre” backed by the University of the West of Scotland and charity hubs.

Local businesswoman Kirsten Rowe said she was shocked when she tried to rent one of the empty shops only to be told she would have to sign a ten-year lease at £45,000 per annum. In response, she has joined up with another local businesswoman, Leah Halliday, and the two are currently applying for permission to stand a “maker’s market” along the length of the pedestrianised high street – a plan that has had overwhelming local support.

“I think the proposals [to buy the high street] are a great idea,” Rowe added. “Most people are sick and tired seeing the town the way it is and they want it to change. Towns like Dumfries are now looking to us to see how it might work.”

Dumfries and Galloway Council leader Elaine Murray added: “It does depress people if the town centre is shabby. There is so much lovely architecture here but a lot of the buildings are owned by businesses that don’t have any association with the town. The council is enthusiastic about supporting the idea that the community would own the high street around the Midsteeple area and I know the Scottish Government is also keen. In these times of austerity we simply aren’t in a position to do it all by ourselves.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson added: “This is an interesting and ambitious proposal. We want communities to develop the capacity to identify their aspirations and needs and to develop and deliver economic, social and environmental solutions that work for their local area. We will continue to work with partners such as Scottish Towns Partnership and SURF (Scotland’s Regeneration Network) to support regeneration in communities and contribute to the vibrancy, vitality, and viability of our town centres. This has included previous support for the Stove Network.”

Author: GWSF / SFHA

Responses from two of Scotland’s leading housing bodies were quick to appear. Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum published this article in Scottish Housing News.

Scottish Federation of Housing Associations published a response on their website. Game over? Game on!