Author: Senscot

To see Senscot briefing on Community Tourism

In 2012, an industry-led national tourism strategy, Tourism Scotland 2020 (TS2020), was published. The strategy, headed by the Scottish Tourism Alliance, stated a vision that “Scotland will be a destination of first choice for a high quality, value for money and memorable customer experience, delivered by skilled and passionate people”.

The strategy had two main focuses: identifying markets which offered the highest growth potential, and cultivating a greater level of collaboration between Scotland’s key tourist destinations. It is hoped that the strategy will see Scotland increase its total visitor spend from £4.5bn to over £5.5bn by 2020. However, a mid-term review indicated that, while the strategy’s framework remains fit for purpose, the target of a £1bn increase in visitor spend was still some way off.

Community-led tourism initiatives have an important role to play in achieving this goal, as recognised by the Scottish Government in a strategic letter of guidance to Visit Scotland, encouraging it to “engage regularly with Scotland’s communities to help them make the most of their own local tourism resources”.

Tourism-focussed social enterprises can empower communities to grow their individual tourism markets by putting local people and community assets at the heart of a collaborative approach to growing visitor numbers. Forging a network of local initiatives will be key if Scotland is to achieve the stated aims of TS2020.

Community tourism puts local people at the centre of the decision-making process to produce a tourist offering which benefits the whole community, not just a few businesses. It looks to build a strategy which allows small, local businesses to capture the footfall of visitors who are attracted to larger, popular local assets.

Encouraging the local community to take ownership of tourism in their area can help preserve historic and cultural heritage, improve management of land and assets for community use, encourage the development of new business opportunities, and improve the quality of services.

Communities are more likely to lead on tourism in rural areas, often those which are economically marginalised. Similar to social enterprise, communities are stepping in where they see a need that is not being met by the private or public sector. Ensuring that the economic benefits of tourism are spread across a community increases the buyin from local businesses, giving a concerted focus to any local tourism initiative. Connecting with community groups, the local tourism forum, development trusts, social enterprises and other tourism-related businesses in the planning of local tourism initiatives reinforces this ethos of community benefit.

A successful plan will also look to develop meaningful partnerships between the public, private and third sectors, as well as business to business. Can schools and local businesses build links to develop a better, shared knowledge of local heritage and community assets among young people in the area? Can local businesses work together to signpost each other’s products and services to tourists? Cumulatively, these small steps in partnership building can contribute to a vastly enhanced visitor experience, increasing the community’s tourist offer.

Some of the challenges included in driving projects forward are local politics, lack of resource, lack of knowledge, and poor infrastructure. Where national and local bodies have stepped in to help tackle these challenges there is greater success.

“We devised a programme of interactions with the community, the school and local businesses. WorldHost training and visitor experience training was available to young people so that when they worked in restaurants and bars at night they could pass on that information to the tourist. We then further developed it and introduced courses that are now SQA registered: travel and tourism, early education and childcare, which is another need within the community.” Yvonne Ross, Director, Dornoch CIC

Author: BBC Timeline

Remote Scottish community tops UK broadband with 1Gbps speeds (short video) 

Local Balquhidder community achieves hyper-fast broadband, digging trenches and using council funds to build its own infrastructure and reach the fastest speeds in Britain.

An ambitious local community in a remote Scottish glen has been praised for significantly boosting its broadband, joining a small fraction of properties in the UK able to reach speeds of 1Gbps.

Working in partnership with Stirling Council and internet service provider (ISP) Bogons, community interest company Balquhidder Community Broadband (BCB), will deliver hyper-fast, future proof and community owned broadband to all 197 premises in the Balquhidder area.

In what is believed to be a unique project in Scotland – delivering such high speeds through a community owned network, to such a small population – the project has involved local volunteers digging trenches and laying fibre cable across the rural landscape.

Funded in part by an initial £100,000 investment from Stirling Council along with a similar investment from its commercial partner, and rural development funding from the Scottish LEADER programme, the BCB project is expected to bring millions of pounds in economic gains to the area.

It will deliver internet connections hundreds of times faster than those previously available from mainstream internet service providers. This will boost the local economy, improving jobs, diversity and resilience. Property prices are expected to rise, and residents and businesses will be able to better access commercial and public services online.

Speaking at a public launch, David Johnston, a director at BCB, said: “This project is hugely significant. Residential homes and businesses, some of which currently have no broadband, will be able to cancel existing poor copper to the premise broadband and line rental contracts and enjoy ‘world class’ service, for less than most are currently paying.

“This has been a genuine collaboration between local businesses, local government and local people and our commercial partner Bogons, to lay the foundations for broadband connectivity in Balquhidder on a par with the rest of the world.”

Brandon Butterworth, a director of Bogons Limited, said: “Balquhidder is our first local project of this nature. Since our work with BCB started we have also now taken on wireless internet service provider provision for neighbouring Loch Tay. We are looking to help other communities where the community is willing to do the digging and other works for us to install fibre. A DIY dig saves the community a significant part of the install cost where any fibre, even fibre to the cabinet, has not previously been available.”

Stirling Council’s finance and economy chair councillor Margaret Brisley said: “Access to high speed broadband and connectivity is a major issue for communities in rural Stirling, impacting on economic growth and access to services. The Balquhidder Community Broadband Project is an excellent example of a community providing a solution to this challenge, supported by Stirling Council and private sector partners.  The council recognises the leadership and commitment shown by the community and is delighted to work in partnership to deliver this project. Providing world class broadband connectivity to Balquhidder will be transformational, enabling and supporting the economic growth of the area whilst giving the community full access to services.”

Councillor Jeremy McDonald, broadband delivery chair at Stirling Council, added: “I am genuinely excited about the launch of this community broadband project that has been a collaboration between a dedicated group of community volunteers, private enterprise and the local authority. This impressive project shows what can be done to ensure our remotest communities can compete in the digital world.”

Local businesses include the Mhor Group – which locally operates restaurants and a hotel. Owner and chef Tom Lewis, said: “This broadband scheme is vital to the development of our businesses. The markets we target expect and demand a good internet connection. Our current satellite feed is really expensive and only lets us provide limited email services to our customers which has had a negative impact in our corporate conference business. It will be transformational once we are connected and finally allow us to manage our businesses in Balquhidder, Callander and Glasgow from our home in Balquhidder.”

BCB director and project founder Richard Harris is a technology industry entrepreneur at Two Worlds, who works around the world from his base in Balquhidder. He said: “Balquhidder, like much of rural Scotland, offers a high quality of life in an active community in stunning surroundings. And, like all those areas, it’s economic development and resilience have been crippled by the lack of effective communications. I’ve spent eleven years in efforts that have led to this project, during which time I’ve twice had to move growing companies out of Scotland because of poor communications. I now run an international AI and augmented reality company, for which a reliable, high-speed internet connection is vital. Without this network we would soon have had to move out of the area altogether. With it, we can now do the opposite: start to attract more skilled individuals and other companies into the area.”

Mark Venables, also a director at BCB, as well as being chief executive of Highland Marketing, which was founded in the glen, said: “This project shows just what can be achieved in a local community, and could provide a model for other parts of the country to boost rural areas. As a business, we work with technology vendors across the globe, who rely on us for content that requires bandwidth. This new service will allow us to end our reliance on costly satellite broadband and ensure that staff working in our Scotland office can continue to support clients into the future, just as easily as those working in our London office and other parts of the UK.”

By working in partnership with internet service provider Bogons, which is turning the old nuclear bunker at nearby Cultybraggan into a major data centre, BCB has been able to keep construction costs of the local fibre network to a level about half of a commercial build. By delivering fibre to the premise (FTTP) it has also been able to ensure that the service can be easily upgraded in the future at minimal cost.

Author: Andy Wightman MSP

On the Thursday before Christmas, Scottish ministers issued a decision letter approving the construction of a film studio and power station at Damhead in the greenbelt to the south of Edinburgh. In a brilliant circular argument, the development was deemed to be of national importance by ministers, thus justifying its incorporation into the local development plan which was then used by ministers to justify their decision.

For this development to go ahead, a smallholder whose family has enjoyed a secure tenancy for a century will have to be evicted. The landowner has no interests in the film industry and neither it appears does the applicant. This application has been about little more than land speculation.

Along with other applications determined by ministers such as the luxury housing and tennis academy outside Dunblane, which was given approval despite the opposition of the local council and of the public inquiry, local democracy is increasingly being subverted by the political interests of ministers.

Planning is meant to reflect the needs and interests of communities and provide a process for democratic decision making about how land is allocated to different uses. Yet, over the past ten years and more, planning has been increasingly framed by ministers as a service to business and investors to stimulate economic growth and as a means by which to support the vested interests of the speculative volume housebuilding industry.

A new Planning Bill is designed to strengthen local development planning, improve public engagement and provide better support for infrastructure provision. Government claims there has been a breakdown in trust in the system and I agree. The Bill seeks to facilitate greater participation and up front engagement in preparing plans and that is welcome. But it does little to rebuild trust in a process which, for too many communities remains complex, confrontational and open to abuse.

Applicants can appeal planning decisions to Scottish ministers whereas those who have to live with the consequences have no such right. How can trust be built in such a process if applicants, having seen their plans rejected, are able to go straight in the back door to seek the support of ministers in overturning democratic decisions?

There is nothing in the Bill to reform rights of appeal but there is increasing support for doing so. By abolishing much of the existing right of appeal (particularly in relation to applications that breach the local development plan) and introducing a limited right for communities to challenge those same breaches, everyone involved could invest time and effort at the beginning of the process confident that it will not be corrupted and perverted at the end.

The other key weakness of the Bill is its unquestioning embrace of a model of housebuilding that the rest of Europe has rejected. It might seem normal but the dominance of the speculative volume housebuilding industry has distorted and corrupted the planning system for decades. Nowhere else in Europe are new houses built this way. Indeed, in 1947, when the planning system was first introduced, it was designed to allow public authorities to lead the development process by acquiring land at a price reflecting its existing use.

Very quickly, however, developers saw how planning consents inflate the value of land a hundred-fold or more and lobbied to end the public right and allow landowners to capture the uplift in land values that flowed from the granting of planning permission. In 1959, they succeeded and since then, development has been driven in the main by private speculators rather than the public interest.

Given the scale of the housing crisis and the need for a wide variety of new homes for different types of households in different areas, it makes sense that local government should play the lead role in development, masterplanning and infrastructure provision as it does throughout most of the rest of Europe. By acquiring the land at its existing use value, serviced plots can then be sold at a fraction of current prices to co-operatives, individuals, housing associations and developers to create the kind of integrated, high quality places that we know are possible. So-called self-procurement of housing but those who will actually occupy it drives up standards of design and quality.

The Scottish Parliament is given the opportunity to reform the planning system once a decade. Without substantial changes, this Bill will do very little to return planning to the central role it should have in delivering places designed with people at its heart. Instead, it will perpetuate a corrupted system designed to promote the vested interests of private developers.

Author: Neal Lawson

How do social democrats change things? The traditional method has been to win elections, inhabit the state, pull the levers of the state and hey presto – social democracy. Here in the UK this approach is magnified because of our awful first past the post voting system, but most social democrats would rather not share power and rarely look beyond their own tribe for inspiration. Social democrats see winning electoral competitions as key in the pursuit of as much as possible, if not total, power over the state. Social democracy is something that is done to the people, they in turn are grateful for it and they vote for you again.

But this is a tired model of change more suited to the big Fordist institutions of the last century – which allowed a large degree of command and control. It’s not well suited to the increasingly networked culture of the 21st century. In a new publication for Compass called Beyond Monopoly Socialism I set out a different governing philosophy for social democrats – that of pluralism.

The idea of monopoly socialism is odd when we as social democrats bemoan monopolies and unfair competition/dominance in the marketplace. We know that all monopolies corrupt and corrode. They are brittle and they ossify precisely because there is no challenge, accountability or alternative viewpoints.

In the publication I take the reader on a trip to North London and introduce them to Siân Berry, a local councillor playing a key role on issues such as the Community Investment Programme, new council housing and community facilities.  Siân introduced the idea of ‘citizen science’ projects to the borough to get local communities monitoring their own deadly air pollution. Now every council in London and beyond is looking at air quality seriously.

But Sian isn’t a Labour Councillor, she’s a Green, and it is precisely because she’s different from Labour that she adds real value to progressive politics.  Another ‘me too’ payroll Labour councillor wouldn’t have the motivation to question or innovate like Sian. But come May, the Labour juggernaut will look to crush Sian and her slender 75-vote majority and replace her with one of its own – just as they will for all other progressives. This monopolistic approach to politics and governance will be Labour’s undoing – it must change not just its policies, but its culture. This is a UK example but the same principle applies elsewhere – we need diversity to answer the complex challenges we face.

Power With Others

Here in the UK, even just on electoral terms, challenging this monopoly socialism is important in order to gain a progressive parliamentary majority. Jeremy Corbyn might now be Prime Minister if Labour had given even an inch to the possibility of a Progressive Alliance last June. In over 60 seats the progressive vote was bigger than the regressive vote. But Labour preferred purity to a share of power.  While Labour cleaves to a one more heave approach, the reality is that such an alliance could be needed again in the future.

But the real challenge is not electoral but cultural and it matters to social democrats everywhere; not how to amass enough votes to control the machinery of the state, but how to make big progressive change happen in a 21st century defined by the cooperative and complex spirit of platforms, not the elitism of old style top-down control. This demands a new attitude to power. Social democrats must embrace Mary Parker Follett’s distinction between ‘power over’ and ‘power with’. Power over is power as domination – the control of others. Power with is the power to transform precisely because it’s collaborative and plural. At every point the future is negotiated by all of us, rather than imposed by any one of us. And with the dispersal of knowledge comes the innovation and flexibility to meet the complexity and scale of the challenges we now face. This doesn’t mean soggy centrist conformity, but a new radical majoritarian consent that can meet and match the furious reactionary opposition any radical government will face. It is a huge fallacy of some on the left to believe the British state can simply be inhabited and used for radical purposes. It can’t. It has to be democratised, pluralised and localised if it is to be a vehicle for transformation.

The idea that any one party, or any one faction within it, led in turn by a very small group of mostly men can somehow master global finance, the bond markets, climate change, post-carbon energy supply, artificial intelligence, the rise of identity politics and much else, is quaint to say to the least. As yet unwilling to face this complex reality, social democrats fall back on recreating the post-war political settlement. In the UK it’s the ‘1945 moment’ – but that misreads history. Yes, it was Labour that won the seats and pulled the then functioning levers of the state to make the post-war social democratic settlement, but the moment was built by Liberals, Methodists, Marxists and even Conservatives too. It is worth recalling the words of Attlee here: “if you begin to consider yourself solely responsible to a political party, you’re halfway to a dictatorship.” And then this: “the foundation of democratic liberty is a willingness to believe that other people may perhaps be wiser than oneself.” 1945 was also preceded by years of National Government, involving collaboration and compromise, which arguably led Attlee to understand both the value of negotiation and consensual politics, but also what was possible when governments were seen as acting in the nation’s interest, rather than trying to beat their political opponents.

Today party allegiances are weaker than ever: what we now see is a politics of surges or swarms, as people shift from one party, idea or movement to the next in wide and fast-moving blocs. Populism breathes in much of the available the oxygen and social democrats, doing the same thing, expect a different outcome.

A Kinder Politics

In the UK much hope rests with Momentum, the Praetorian Guard of Corbyn’s leadership. The organisation seems to hold two cultures at the same time – old school command and control, and pluralism. A generational divide represents this schism, with younger members lacking the tribal loyalty to Labour as older comrades.

There is a rich irony to the Corbyn wave, born of movements like UK Uncut, Occupy, Climate Camp and Stop the War. It borrowed people, inspiration and ideas from the Scottish independence campaigns, from the Greens and even young Liberal Democrats. In one crucial respect Corbyn’s whole leadership was founded on the pluralism and generosity of MPs who disagreed with him but nominated him because they valued a wider debate in the first leadership contest. So, Jeremy Corbyn must now make good his call for a “kinder, gentler politics”.

This collaborative approach will be essential if Labour gets into office. In Greece Syriza didn’t let go of power anywhere near enough and failed to build the broad alliances necessary to withstand global forces. And if we cast our minds back to Mitterrand in the early 1980s – we see how a go-it-alone politics ends up.

In her new book A New Politics from the Left (Feb 2018, Polity), Hilary Wainwright, an astute outrider for the Corbyn project, says: “The development of a new politics, rooted in a new economics, will often be independent of any one political party, and expressed in municipal alliances and in different left and green parties at different levels”. Or as Raymond Williams, the Welsh cultural theorist, once said: “It seems to me that the break towards socialism can only be to an unimaginably greater complexity”.

Change is coming – it’s already all around us in our communities and workplaces. For social democrats, like all of us, it’s only when you let go and trust other people that meaningful and lasting change can happen. Do we trust the people?

Author: Lesley Riddoch

Does rural Scotland actually matter to the powers that be? The recent Snowmageddon would make you wonder. Every B-road in Fife and the Borders was still blocked with snow, but travel presenters and government ministers were cheerfully announcing that Scotland was back in business.

This week, massive puddles blocked Fife roads too. Our postie’s van was up to the bonnet in water and he was towed out by a local alerted by the WhatsApp group set up by villagers to keep one another informed of real conditions and problems. We know now – we are largely on our own.

If you live in the country you must accept these terms of trade. Services will be patchy (my own village has no daytime bus service or recycling facilities), roads must be cleared and maintained by locals (a friend carries stones to fill in massive potholes on the estate track that passes her rented house.) This is normal.

Most of rural Scotland is administered from a distant urban council and actually belongs to someone else – someone whose plans, preferences and whims are writ large across the lives of folk who bide on “their” land.

The Scottish Government hopes to achieve a balance between landed power and others like crofters and tenants. It’s a fine objective. The question is whether it’s even remotely realistic – especially for powerless tenants.

National readers will remember the story of Katie, the café owner on Skye who was made homeless from her rented house but could find no long term lets on the island because every house, flat, room and sofa is advertised on short-term letting sites instead. With help from local MP Ian Blackford Katie got into B&B accommodation last weekend and Highland Council has come up with a room in their homeless housing in Portree. It doesn’t accept dogs so it’s a very welcome but short-term fix. These days though, that is a result.

Last month, this column revealed that long-standing farm tenancies on the Buccleuch estate in the Borders have been terminated while the estate plans to apply for Scottish Government forestry grants. The couple at the centre of the row decided to speak out in an extraordinary public meeting in Langholm last Tuesday where 300 local people turned up to question the Duke of Buccleuch and his chief executive John Glen. Alison and David Telfer of Cleuchfoot spoke emotionally about the way they had been treated.

According to an article in the local Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser Alison told the meeting that the estate manager announced; “our lease was ending at the end of February (2018), the hill would be planted and the house and the rest of the land sold. He said ‘the die is cast, this will happen’. Whatever our retirement plans were, bring them forward four or five years. We asked what would happen to our hefted flock of South Country Cheviots. He said they would be cleared and we couldn’t be sentimental about sheep.”

“Our agent rang us on February 14 to say Mr Glen [Buccleuch chief executive] had issued a very distressing ultimatum; if we didn’t agree to their proposals, the next day they would start proceedings to evict us at the end of the month. We eventually signed the paperwork on the 22nd but we aren’t happy with what we’ve had to sign. We feel we were bullied and intimidated into it.”

The paper reports that Glen said he never intended to have this effect on the tenants: “I regret and I’m sorry if that’s the feeling. It’s not what we’re aiming to do.

“We want to have professional conversations with our tenants. I do take it on board and I’ll look at our processes if that’s the way you think people [at Buccleuch] are behaving.”

Fine. It looks as if the Telfers have been given till April 2019 to quit their house and farmland, but must stop grazing the hill land this October. They wanted to stay on till retirement in 2022. With no family, that would be a natural time to end the tenancy. But no dice. As David said ruefully on the phone; “The Duke did apologise for how it was all handled. He was apologetic but not giving an inch. The Scottish Government say trees and farmers can live together – but that’s basically waffle.”

The Telfer’s problem is undoubtedly the tip of a rural iceberg and it certainly isn’t solved but the problem will soon disappear from public view. Despite the drama of the meeting with the Duke of Buccleuch in Langholm, and coverage in the National, Times and Scotsman – only Borders TV bothered to turn up last week. So do the bulk of Scots watching BBC and STV news even know about these problems? No they do not.

Meanwhile another week brings another story of unhappy tenants – this time on the Balavil Estate near Kingussie bought in 2015 by the Dutch wine millionaire Eric Heerema and his wife Hannah, who is grand-daughter of the late Scottish singing star Calum Kennedy. They bought with vacant possession in 2015, which means most house leases and one limited-farming-partnership had already been dissolved by the previous owner to make the estate easier to sell.

Since then tenants who’ve lived on Balavil for decades have been living on borrowed time, without any rights simply waiting for the axe to fall. Of course, there was an outside chance the new owners would let folk stay. The new restoration manager promised; “We want local communities to benefit from the restoration and future of the estate.” But the Heerema’s are currently removing the last tenants from their estate – Kath Waters, her husband and their two grown children. Kath works in the kitchen at Kingussie High School, her husband and daughter work in Inverness and their son is in his last year at school.

The Waters have paid their rent promptly for 15 years and put in a new kitchen, shower and wood-burning stove after repeated failed requests for renovation over the years by the estate.

The new owners can argue they have actually been generous – extending Kath’s removal date because the council cannot find anywhere suitable locally and most private lets are now holiday lets. Kath herself is resigned to moving, but the unfairness of it all angers her. “I didn’t think we should be thrown out. We pay rent. We’ve done nothing wrong,” she says.

That’s true. The new landlords haven’t done anything wrong. Nor has the previous landowner.

Yet families have been forced out, mostly against their will at a time of chronic housing shortage and had to watch their homes lie vacant ever since. Is that just? According to local Green councillor Pippa Hadley; “The estate laid out their vision to make Balavil “one of the best examples of a sustainable, modern Highland Estate” in 2016, a year after obtaining the estate.

Since then, I have watched with ever increasing dismay as a steady succession of tenants lose their homes, in many cases after decades of living/working in the area or on the estate. The sight of the tenant farmer arranging a lifetime’s accumulation of farm equipment on the lawns of the house like a huge garage sale beside the A9 will stay with me – he raised his sons on the estate farm for over twenty years – but his is just one sad tale of many. I despair to think this is an acceptable version of a sustainable, modern Highland estate.”

A spokesperson for Balavil Estate said: “When the estate was bought, with vacant possession, in 2015 many of the houses on the estate were in a very poor state of repair. They need to be vacated to be renovated and brought back to an appropriate standard.

They added: “As part of the plans to restore Balavil, these properties are required to allow the recruitment of workers for the estate, for whom there is currently no accommodation.”

And you know, they’re probably right. When landed estates change hands, the old tenants are just so much flotsam and jetsam.

They have no legal rights so they have to move on. It has been the Scottish way for centuries. But is it right?

Are these a series of little local difficulties and “misunderstandings”? Or is the balance of power between tenants, tenant farmers in limited partnership and landowners hopelessly skewed in favour of landowners? Is it possible to solve the problems of rural homelessness without compulsory purchase of land? And would the task be made easier if large estates were not holding most of the cards?

Fergus Ewing is Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy. Methinks some bold ideas about how to resolve these energy-sapping problems are long overdue.

Author: Dig-In Bruntsfield

Dig- In Bruntsfield.           To see the three things we learned click here

We’re just about thawing out after what was an incredibly eventful week in the life of our wee shop.

Tuesday evening, the snow starting drifting in as we gathered for our 5th AGM, reflecting on the successes of last year and catching up with our members, shareholders, volunteers and community built through this wee unassuming grocers. Little did we know that the Beast from the East was on her way, wreaking havoc with our food supply and collective ability to function…. or did it?

By Wednesday evening, the Beast had landed, red warnings issued, all public transport had ground to a halt and workplaces were being closed up and down the country with people being urged to STAY AT HOME. But not for Dig-In… Thursday, Friday and Saturday passed in a white, windy blur as Morag, Claire, Katariina and volunteers kept the doors open all our usual opening hours as we served more customers than ever.

Small scale producers (not driving HGVs) were able to deliver direct to us, bypassing distribution centres and off site industrial bakeries and processing units. The incredible logistic machine that is the supermarket supply chain is immensely impressive, but as evidenced last week, simultaneously vulnerable and fragile. It’s a good time to reflect on our short supply chains and why in the face of a storm that emptied shelves across the country, our community shop proved resilient to the shock scarcity and absenteeism.

See what we learned here

Author: STP

Scotland’s most deprived towns could be regenerated by nostalgic US ex-pats under a new scheme which will tap into the successful crowdfunding platform that helped rebuild a bankrupt Detroit.

The proposal for the initiative, labelled Tartan Cent, is being launched by Scotland’s Towns Partnership – a collective of the country’s largest towns – and the US match-funding, web-based platform Patroncity. It will see community projects in towns that would benefit from regeneration highlighted, with wealthy members of the Scottish diaspora able to make online pledges of financial backing.

The site founders, who are based in Detroit – the Michigan city which in 2013 went through the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history – claim it offers an alternative way of investing in communities hit by cuts to public spending. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) has raised concerns with the Scottish Government that cuts to local funding will impact on jobs and services, leaving little for investment in more ambitious projects.

Diverse US projects match funded include sports complexes, community gardens, revitalised town squares and community facilities such as a museums, a folk school and a photography centre.

Phil Prentice, the chief officer of Scotland’s Towns Partnerships, claimed that the Scottish project will also seek contributions from Scottish and local governments as well as well known wealthy philanthropists with a link to the proposed projects.

Tartan Cent, which will be launched at the Scottish organisation’s conference this Tuesday, is due to kick off its first 20-week campaign to target ex-pats with emotional ties to the motherland in January. Towns put forward for support have yet to be confirmed, but it is expected several in Fife – Scotland’s former industrial heartland, with a nod to Detroit – will be in the running.

They include a proposals to create a “merchant’s quarter” in rundown Kirkcaldy, which has a rich history and was the birthplace of Adam Smith, as well as plans to develop the nearby beach for tourism. Other projects include the regeneration of Dunfermline’s town centre, highlighting its unique history and heritage. The town first became significant in the Bronze Age with the marriage of Malcolm III, King of Scotland, and Saint Margaret.

Others have suggested urban areas, such as Glasgow’s Govan which has suffered from high levels of deprivation following the decline of the shipbuilding industry, or the former tourist destination of Rothesay.

The project which attracts the most backing on the Patroncity site – which has raised almost $5 million for 135 projects since its 2011 inception – will be awarded the funding.

Prentice claimed that the Detroit model fitted with the Scottish Government’s agenda of community empowerment and local democracy and would allow communities to have more control to make the changes they wanted to see.

He said: “We wanted to explore how Detroit had managed to repurpose itself using small community crowd-funding platforms and to see if we could replicate the approach of Patronicity in Scotland – towns and cities across Scotland paying for what they want to see happen, in tight financial times, just like Detroit.

“Maybe a landmark building can be reused, a statue of a famous son or piece of public art developed, a reflection garden or greenspace created, a play area or events space constructed. It’s a democratic way to get new things happening.”

He claimed that Scottish-based crowdfunding plans, in partnership with local entrepreneurs, was also under consideration.

Rob St Mary, director of outreach for Patronicity, who will be in Scotland this week to attend the launch and whose grandparents, mother and aunt emigrated from Aberdeen in 1970, said it had worked in cash-strapped Detroit by giving local, not-for-profit and community organisations an opportunity to access grant funding and build local support for projects.

“A project like this one in northwest Detroit had a huge impact on bringing together families, children, and artists to create something they could be proud of,” he said.

“This programme is, in a way, how people like me and my family – first generations as well as expats of the Scottish diaspora – can directly help their communities ‘back home’. I believe if we can match great projects in Scotland with people who care about Scotland overseas it can be a great programme for all, improving community, building bridges, and sharing stories.

“We have seen it here in Michigan when people who have moved away are still emotionally engaged with their hometowns. They want to help improve that park they played in or that special place in mom and dad’s, or grandma and grandpa’s, old neighbourhood.”

Andy Milne, chief executive of Scotland’s Regeneration Forum, welcomed the initiative. He said: “The support and resources of ex-pat locals from towns all over Scotland can be a valuable catalyst in encouraging and funding innovative community projects.

“Given the scale of the challenges that so many of our post-industrial towns are facing, it’s by no means a substitute for a well-targeted system of public services and strategic investments in what is still a rich country. But it can certainly help to deliver that vital ingredient of authentic community participation that makes community regeneration successful and sustainable.”

Author: Herald

A community bid to buy a small island populated by just five people and valued at over £4million has taken a massive leap forward.

Campaigners in north-west Mull had been battling to purchase the Isle of Ulva so they could attract people to the 4500-acre island and stimulate economic activity.

They have now been handed a £4.4m award that paves the way for negotiations to begin with its owner. They have just 10 weeks to push forward the sale.

The award, from the Scottish Government-funded Scottish Land Fund, comes just weeks after Roseanna Cunningham, Scotland’s Land Reform Secretary, gave the go-ahead for the North West Mull Community Woodland Company (NWMCWC) to purchase Ulva and the Ulva Ferry port on Mull.

The Fund, which helps communities take ownership of land and buildings, confirmed it is to hand over up to £4,415,200 to help move the potential purchase closer.

The NWMCWC, which already owns a large area of Mull as a community asset, has until June 9 to agree terms with the landowner, Jamie Howard, to raise any extra funding they need and to complete the sale.

It was the first group to register interest in an island under the Scottish Government’s Community Right to Buy legislation.

Colin Morrison, chair of NWMCWC, expressed delight at the funding news.

He said: “This award from the Scottish Land Fund is hugely significant, not only for Ulva but also more broadly for north-west Mull.

“Our top priority is to renovate the existing buildings and provide secure leases for present and new residents and businesses. We aim to have 20 or more people living on Ulva within two or three years, rising to as many as 50 or more in time as new houses are built.

“Social and economic development of Ulva will bring benefits to the neighbouring communities on Mull. Schools, shops, local services and industry will all receive a boost from the increased population and also from the increased number of visitors we are confident we shall see once accommodation and facilities are provided for them on the island.”

The island was put on the market last year for offers over £4.25m. Agents highlighted its links to the authors Beatrix Potter and Sir Walter Scott, who used Ulva as inspiration for his poem Lord of the Isles.

The package includes cottages, a Grade II listed church and Neolithic standing stones.

However, its sale on the open market was halted by the Scottish Government after the community expressed its hopes to use land reform laws to buy it.

The estate owner later criticised the buyout plans and raised concerns over whether the community group would have sufficient funds to run the island properly. He has claimed the buyout would leave him homeless and criticised the Scottish Government’s handling of the matter.

Ms Cunningham said: “Today’s award should provide the NW Mull Community Woodland Company with the means to make a fair and serious offer for the island.  “This is further demonstration of the Scottish Government’s commitment to empowering communities via land reform – enabling them to determine their own futures.

“If the purchase is successful, then I’m sure that the people of Ulva, and its surrounding area, will reap the benefits of community ownership for years to come.”

John Watt, chair of the Scottish Land Fund, which is delivered in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, added: “Local people are now one step closer to extending the area the community currently owns and, in doing so, putting the future of the island of Ulva firmly in local hands. It is a momentous day for all those involved.”

An independent ballot of 401 voters in north-west Mull in December showed almost 64 per cent of people were in favour of the community buyout.

However, Mull Community Council claimed it had refused to support the buyout bid as residents had been excluded from taking part in the poll.

Sandra Holmes, of Highlands and Island Enterprise, which has given financial backing to NWMCWC and advised the group on the Scottish Land Fund application, said: “NWMCWC are to be congratulated in securing a significant funding award.

“This was only possible following a sustained and intensive voluntary effort and now gives the group the go-ahead to raise the additional funding to complete the purchase.”

Author: SCA

Community Learning Exchange

The Community Learning Exchange is a fantastic opportunity for communities to learn through the exchange of ideas and the sharing of common solutions.  When community groups make visits to other communities, the most valuable part is often meeting new people with similar interests and gaining new insights and perspectives on shared challenges.  Visiting groups come away armed with new ideas and approaches, and host organisations have the opportunity to explain their project to a new and interested audience, often seeing their own projects afresh through new eyes.

For examples of how learning visits have already benefited some groups click here to view the latest newsletter.

What will the exchange fund?

The Exchange will fund up to 100% of the costs of a visit by members of one community to another community project up to a limit of £750, including a host fee.  In exceptional circumstances (where travel distances are greater or certain aspects of the visit are particularly expensive) this limit can be increased.  Similarly, visits out with Scotland, but within the UK, will be considered where a similar project does not exist in Scotland.

The Exchange will also fund follow up support between organisations.  This might be as a result of a learning visit when it is recognised that more specific and on-going help, support, or advice is required. This can be through face-to-face meetings, by phone, e-mail, or skype. Funding for this kind of additional support will need to be negotiated separately.

How to apply?

The Exchange operates primarily through the networks that comprise the Scottish Community Alliance.  The exception to this rule are Scotland’s community councils. Since the demise of the Association of Scottish Community Councils, there has been no umbrella body for community councils.

Applications to the Exchange are processed through one or other of the networks’ designated members of staff. The exception to this rule are community councils who should apply directly to the Exchange Coordinators.  Applications can be made at any time for visits throughout 2017 and up until March 2018. Funding is limited, and once it has been committed no further applications will be accepted.

For guidance about the Community Learning Exchange click here.

For an application form click here.

Please remember, applications must be endorsed by a network that is a member of SCA unless your organisation is a community council.

Contact details:

To find out how your community-based organisation can apply to the Community Learning Exchange, contact one of the networks (check www.scottishcommunityalliance.org.uk) or email

exchange@scottishcommunityalliance.org.uk or call the Exchange Coordinators (Jane on 07581 216246 or Amanda on 07843 481790).

Author: Nourish Scotland

This practical resource has been developed by Nourish Scotland and the Poverty Truth Commission with and for community food providers, including those providing emergency food aid. It includes tools and exercises to help projects think about what dignity looks like in practice and how this can be achieved, and complements the ‘Dignity in Practice’ report. We co-produced this resource as part of the Dignity Project to support staff, volunteers and those taking part in community food initiatives to:

·         consider how the design and delivery of their project makes people experiencing food insecurity feel;

·         reflect on what more could be done to promote and restore dignity in practice. We will be adding more resources as we continue to work with people with lived experience, community food providers and others in the time ahead. We hope you will find them useful, do contact us with any suggestions and feedback – we would love to hear from you.

The full report – Dignity in Practice-  produced by Nourish Scotland and Poverty Truth Commission is available for download here