Author: Roy Carroll, The Guardian

Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park.

The County Kerry town went through about 23,000 cups a week – more than a million a year – adding up to 18.5 tonnes of waste.

Not any more. Three months ago, Killarney became the first town in Ireland to phase out single-use coffee cups. If you want a takeaway coffee from a cafe or hotel, you must bring your own cup or pay a €2 deposit for a reusable cup that is returned when the cup is given back.

The results are evident in bins, which now seldom overflow, and on streets and forest trails where it is rare to see abandoned cups.

“It was a plague on the town and countryside,” said Michael Gleeson, chair of the group Killarney Looking Good, that promotes civic improvements. “This was a wonderful and necessary initiative. The amount of cups strewn around is considerably reduced.”

On a stretch of the N22 road to Cork, Gleeson used to pick up five or six cups, now he tends to find just one, if any.

Other Kerry towns, including Tralee and Dingle, are considering emulating the experiment, and the hope is that it will spread across Ireland and beyond, said Gleeson. “Our great challenge is to make our world more beautiful.”

Eliminating single-use cups sounds a relatively modest goal but only a handful of other towns, such as Freiburg in Germany, are known to have tried similar initiatives. The people behind Killarney’s campaign know why – it’s not easy.

“We were looking at options for community projects, and we thought, ‘Oh, coffee cups, that’ll be quick’,” said Louise Byrne, a sustainability manager for the Killarney Park Hotel and The Ross.

“Oh, were we wrong,” said Ciara Treacy, another hotel manager. “It takes a lot of work, and it doesn’t stop. People think we’re the coffee cup police. We’re not. We have jobs.”

Pilot projects in other places faltered because participating cafes discovered that customers migrated to cafes that continued offering disposable cups, said Treacy. “The minute you give consumers the choice, they’ll take the convenience.”

The campaign sought to enlist all of Killarney’s 21 independent cafes, a lengthy process of individual face-to-face meetings, research, negotiations, a town hall-style gathering, a video, and more discussions.

In addition to environmental benefits, the organisers said cafes could save money – each disposable cup costs 20 to 30 cents – and enhance Killarney’s brand.

Still, some cafe owners worried about forfeiting their stocks of single-use cups and alienating local customers as well as tourists. Eventually, nearly all signed up, and a credit union donated €5,000 for marketing, paving the way to the launch on 31 July. “If it can be done in Killarney, at the height of the tourist season, it can be done anywhere,” said Killian Treacy, of Luna Deli + Wine.

More than 50 local businesses are now on board, including a factory that told staff to bring only reusable cups to work.

“It’s a great idea,” said Paul McClure, 43, visiting from San Diego. He had no objection to paying a €2 deposit for a takeaway cup that could be returned to any cafe in Killarney or 400 locations across Ireland, including Dublin airport, that are part of a wider campaign.

Thorunn Einarsdottir, sipping a flat white, said the scheme could work in her native Iceland. “It’s really smart. It’s like learning to organise your trash – it’s habit.”

Replicating the scheme in cities would require government intervention because not every cafe would voluntarily sign up, said Killian Treacy. The Irish government’s planned 20-cent tax on disposable coffee cups, known as the latte levy, is a start, but not enough, he said.

Killarney cannot take success for granted – businesses need regular reassurance and updates, said Ciara Treacy. “There is a lot of hand-holding.”

At least one holdout remains. “We have a big stock of disposable cups to use up,” said Elaine Leahy of Noelle’s cafe, which has stayed out of the scheme. That has had a knock-on effect on a neighbouring cafe, Rí-Rá, which has resumed using single-use cups as well as reusables.

Byrne is confident the scheme will continue to expand with help from community leaders and schools. “We can’t save the world but each of us can make a little change.”

Author: SCA

 Manifesto for Action 

While our vision is focused on the long-term, there is much that can be achieved in the short to medium term to begin the process of realising many of its elements. Legislative and other policy measures during the current session of Parliament offer important opportunities in that regard. Examples of the former include the forthcoming Community Wealth Building Bill, Land Reform Bill, Agriculture Bill, Human Rights Bill and Circular Economy Bill. There is also scope for framing non-legislative policy measures, such as the updated Climate Change Plan, to drive change, especially across policy silos, and deliver elements of our vision. 

The remainder of this document provides a Manifesto for Action to begin the process of putting SCA’s vision for a sustainable Scotland into practice. It does so by consolidating key proposals originally contained in our responses to specific Scottish Government consultations relating to legislation due to be introduced to Parliament during the current session.These proposals are organised and discussed under the following inter-related themes in the remainder of the paper:

•       Governance and Decision-Making
•       Land, Assets and Resources
•       Local Economy
•       People

It is important to note that many of the issues on which we make proposals for action are intrinsically cross-cutting in nature, and consequently demand a holistic policy approach.  For example, the provision of affordable housing is a social issue which is critical for community and cultural resilience.  It is also an economic issue, not least because a lack of affordable housing for rent or purchase within communities represents a major barrier to staff recruitment and local economic development.  SCA therefore advocates for such an approach to be adopted in practice by policymakers, and we contend that the following thematically organised proposals provide a blueprint to enable that to happen. 

Read our Manifesto HERE

Author: Katie Alexander, Crown Estate Scotland

In September of this year, I embarked on a new journey with Crown Estate Scotland: leading development of a groundbreaking initiative called the Community Land Accelerator. Developed in partnership with the Scottish Land Commission, the accelerator aims to support diversity in land ownership in Scotland.

About Crown Estate Scotland

Crown Estate Scotland is a relatively young public body which manages assets on behalf of Scottish Ministers – including seabed, coastline, rural land and more – for the benefit of the people of Scotland. Our revenue profit goes to Scottish Government.

Performing this role in a way which involves communities, and delivers wider value beyond financial return is core to Crown Estate Scotland’s approach – but nonetheless, I didn’t expect my work to continue focusing on land reform in Scotland when I joined. I was happy to be proven wrong, however, when I was invited to meet with our then Chief Executive around four months into my tenure.

Breaking down barriers to land reform

The issue we discussed is one familiar to anyone involved in community-owned assets and land reform: how do we remove barriers to true land reform and the redistribution of Scotland’s assets? In Scotland we are lucky enough to have various types of support in place to further land reform and community empowerment – but barriers still emerge when assets are of high value, come onto the market unexpectedly, or when communities need a portion of land that an owner wants to sell in its entirety.

We felt certain that finding a way to address this issue would serve our overarching purpose of investing in property, natural resources and people to generate lasting value for Scotland, and that creating opportunities to diversify land ownership and management is critical if communities are to thrive.

Following that conversation, Crown Estate Scotland began discussions with Hamish Trench of the Scottish Land Commission – and the concept of the Community Land Accelerator was born.

What is the Community Land Accelerator?

At its core, the Community Land Accelerator envisions Crown Estate Scotland as an interim purchaser, buying time for communities to solidify their plans and raise funds for their own land purchases.

It’s a simple premise, but new to our organisation, and we’re now working steadily to create a process and mechanism that is flexible enough to act quickly, yet robust enough to satisfy our obligations under the Scottish Crown Estate Act and the Scottish Public Finance Manual. Our successful experience in Portgordon, where we acquired a former hotel / pub and handed it over to the local community, offers valuable insights for the journey ahead.

What are the next steps?

The Community Land Accelerator’s development will unfold in three phases: process development, a pilot acquisition, and, if successful, a broader rollout.

Our initial focus is on engaging with partners, stakeholders, and communities themselves, which I’m eagerly looking forward to. Following that, we want a pilot to road test the concept and teach us about the complexities of putting that mechanism into practice. 

As for the types of scale and assets eligible for the pilot – a subject in which there has been considerable interest – that’s a dynamic aspect which will be influenced by factors like the acquisition process, opportunities at the time, and, crucially, available capital.

The measure of success

In both my interview for this post and in my first week in the job I was asked – ‘What would success look like to you?’

To me, success means expanding the support that public bodies and landowners can provide to communities to support their aspirations and change the pattern of land ownership in Scotland.

It’s very exciting to be ‘in on the ground floor’ of a project which, we hope, will turn out to be a leap forward for land reform and an opportunity for communities to embrace a more equitable future. I can’t wait to see what kind of impact we can make.

Author: Sean Bradley, Thirsty Books Edinburgh

Buy the book here

This is the story of Jimmy McIntosh, told mostly in his own words. Jimmy was born with cerebral palsy in Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands in 1943 and spent over forty years in institutional care, most of it in Gogarburn Hospital on the outskirts of Edinburgh. His early years on his grandfather’s farm were followed by placements in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness and East Park Home in Glasgow. Difficult as they were, these early experiences prepared Jimmy for a life of dedication to the cause of disabled people’s right to choose the life they want to lead.

Jimmy was a tireless campaigner for equality and disability rights. Failed and abused by the system, his total lack of bitterness and forgiving nature made him a discerning advocate for disabled people like himself. He left Gogarburn Hospital in 1983 and lived with his wife Elizabeth in Edinburgh until his death in 2014.

A great organiser, committee man and negotiator he was involved in countless campaigns on issues such as voting rights for patients, cuts in social services, setting up advocacy services and hate crime strategies. He was awarded an MBE in 2006 in recognition of his tireless work over many years fighting for people’s rights and challenging discrimination.

If Jimmy’s story illustrates nothing else, it is how person centred he was. A man of enormous empathy, who demonstrated such generous acceptance and patience, despite what he had experienced.

This publication is generously supported by: Edinburgh Development Group, The Action Group, The Thistle Foundation and individual subscribers to the limited-edition hardback.

The voice of Jimmy McIntosh is important to anybody concerned with a more tolerant and including society.
– Tom Frank, Former Social Worker, City of Edinburgh

‘This skilful collation of Jimmy’s recorded interviews, documentary research and reflection offers a rare insight into Institutional life in the 20th Century from a survivor’s perspective and an inspiring narrative of subsequent accomplishments.
– Howard Mitchell, Chair, The Scottish Oral History Group

‘This is both a moving personal story of how Jimmy overcame adversity to become one of Scotland’s foremost disability activists and a social commentary on disabled people’s move away from institutional living. It is a compelling read.’
– Shirley Young, Parent Activist, Trainer and Author

A man of enormous empathy… his legacy must be to keep moving forward towards a truly inclusive society where every contribution is cherished and valued in the certain knowledge that we are all the richer for that.
– Steve Coulson, Coach Consultant, Thistle Foundation

Buy the book here

Author: Community Land Scotland

A new paper from Community Land Scotland suggests that communities across Scotland’s rural areas have repeatedly lost out when money-spinning economic developments are established in their local area. Community Land Scotland proposes a transformational system of new community partnership agreements to ensure community priorities are included from the earliest stage of new economic developments, through the detailed planning process, and including the on-going management of the project.

The paper, Beyond Community Benefit – a new deal for thriving communities, highlights the potential opportunities from massive new investment in projects such as windfarms and carbon-sequestration. Community Land Scotland’s Chairperson Ailsa Raeburn highlights the frequent struggle between local communities and investors/landowners to agree a level of direct local benefit from the exploitation of natural assets.

‘It’s worth remembering that, in generations past, agreement between landowners, developers and the local people was never properly achieved with the coming of historic profitable developments that often dominated many rural estates, such as sheep, kelp, forestry, and fish-farming.

‘Those who have been able to own those assets have always taken nearly all the benefits.

‘Existing models see local communities as a tick-box consideration, with at most contributions to a ‘community benefit fund’, which is often a fraction of the money generated from the projects. We need to move beyond this model and have the community actively involved from the very start of any development process, deciding how everyone in the community can benefit comprehensively from, what are often, very profitable developments.’

‘In 2023, renewables, for example, have huge economic development potential for rural areas of Scotland if properly managed. We need an enforceable system that ensures the local people in these communities get a significant benefit with economic development locked into the local area, as well as securing returns for the landowners and development companies.’

A key change would see Thriving Community Partnership Agreements (TCPA) being drawn up, giving new priority to the needs of the local people. TCPA’s would stipulate a more holistic understanding of ‘benefit’, such agreements could include a precise percentage share of the gross profits of income from the development (rather than a net grant from profits after costs have been deducted). However, benefits would ideally move beyond justfinancial handouts to include land-transfers, housing and service development, for example, depending on agreed community priorities.

The Thriving Community Partnership Agreement could agree a percentage share of any new business venture – such as a wind-farm – be owned by the community, thus securing longer-term, sustainable local income and ensuring the local community has a meaningful seat on governance bodies. A Local Management Board would ensure the interests of the community are represented from the earliest stages, and on a continuous basis.

’Large-scale land use change requires a transformational, truly inclusive, process with local communities at the centre of decision-making about what happens in their communities’, says Ailsa Raeburn. ‘Local community agreement would be required at each stage of the process. A true partnership agreement is best for everyone involved, the landowner and developer as well as the local people.’ 

She believes that radical reform of the development process – with the benefits it would bring to all stakeholders – reflects the Scottish Government’s own policy objectives, including a just transition to Net Zero, building local community wealth, and strengthening local resilience and self-reliance.

‘To achieve these aims’ Ailsa Raeburn concludes, ‘there must be trust, openness and honesty between the landowner, investors, and local community. A Thriving Community Partnership Agreement should be seen as an integral part of the costs and especially, the benefits, of doing business in the local community and accorded the same value within the owner’s development proposal and appraisal.’

In this guest post, Secretary of the Northern Mutual campaign, Bridget Meehan, explains what sets mutual banking apart from high street banking, and why we need one for our region. To stay informed on the campaign, sign up to their e-newsletter today!

So, why a mutual bank?

We already have banks and they work fine, don’t they?

Okay, they let us all down very badly in the big crash of 2008 when they had to be bailed out by taxpayers. Plus, they didn’t help us much even when they were bailed out. And we just have to accept the fact that whatever they were doing before the crash, they’re still pretty much doing today. Not to mention that one bank is fairly much the same as the next one when it comes to what they offer us as customers.

Maybe then we’re not exactly over-the-moon about any of that and the high street banks are all there is and we have to put our money somewhere other than under the mattress. We simply must make do with the choices that are there, regardless of what we think.

The thing is we don’t have to make do. There are genuine alternatives to the high street banks and a mutual bank is one such alternative.

A BANK FOR PURPOSE, NOT PROFIT

For purpose, not profit; owned by members not shareholders; investing the money deposited in the local region and nowhere else; paying staff fair salaries but no executive bonuses; prioritising what’s best for the local economy and the environment, not financial markets and harmful industries like fossil fuels; building banking services in communities, not taking them away; widening financial inclusion, not financial exclusion, because anybody living here can open a bank account.

This is what a mutual bank can offer, alongside all the typical services you’d expect from any bank: current accounts, business accounts, overdrafts, business loans, debit cards, mortgages, electronic payments, foreign exchange; Internet banking; mobile banking.

However, having our own bank isn’t just about giving us more choice on the high street. That isn’t a bad thing in itself but it isn’t a big enough motivator to go to the trouble of establishing a brand new bank. Having our own mutual bank has more profound and significant implications.

With purpose and not profit as the driving motive, the Northern Mutual can do much more than the high street banks. The Northern Mutual can choose to put branches back into communities to ensure that decisions can be made locally and to ensure that people have direct access to banking services, to cash and to a member of staff.

The high street banks will tell you that people don’t need branches anymore and that’s why they’re shutting them down, but that isn’t the lived experience of many customers. The Northern Mutual will not refuse anyone a bank account so long as they live here. This will mean a lot to the people who have no bank account and who have no access to affordable credit.

LOCAL INVESTMENT AND COMMUNITY WEALTH

The Northern Mutual will not be permitted to do business outside of NI. That means that all money deposited with the bank will have to be invested here. This doesn’t happen with the high street banks. The money we deposit in the hundreds and thousands of personal and business accounts is routinely invested outside NI. What the banks don’t lend to people or businesses or institutions here, is invested externally for the benefit of their shareholders.

We’re not talking small change here. We’re talking billions of pounds of our money.

Think about it, all the personal accounts, all the business accounts, all the accounts of statutory bodies like councils or health trusts or schools and colleges or government departments or the public pension pot, all the accounts of community and voluntary groups or sports clubs or anybody else you can think of who needs a bank account; all of that money is deposited in high street banks. We’re not talking small change here. We’re talking billions of pounds of our money. What the bank doesn’t lend back to us is simply siphoned off and put to use elsewhere. On top of that, we don’t have a say in what they use our money for. They could be investing in fossil fuels or destructive mining or any number of socially and environmentally harmful projects.

But don’t we need that money ourselves? Couldn’t we put it to good use here? Couldn’t we help micro and small businesses with that money? Couldn’t we help new business start-ups? Couldn’t we prioritise environmental projects? What if we could invest in communities who want to generate their own renewable energy or in farmers who want to farm sustainably or in construction workers who want to build energy-efficient and affordable housing?

By allowing us to take charge of our own money and the decision-making power to invest it in projects that bring benefit to our region, the Northern Mutual could help create more jobs that are sustainable, secure and pay at least a living wage. We could become a region with a healthier economy that’s better able to meet more of its own energy, food and other needs. We could build financial, environmental and social resilience that will help us withstand future shocks and challenges and help us make a just transition out of fossil fuel use.

And all of this is why we have the campaign for the Northern Mutual. Please support us and get involved.

Author: Nourish Scotland

The National Veg Summit is coming to Edinburgh this autumn.

With the passing of the Good Food Nation bill in 2022, we must now make the plans to deliver on its demands and become a good food nation. We can’t do this without thinking about veg.

This year’s Summit is your invitation to be part of a crucial conversation – and the next step – in Scotland becoming a Good Food Nation.

Join Nourish Scotland for a day of veg-centred discussions, displays and, of course, eating at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

More information

Author: Daniel Daly-Grafstein, The Conversation

Homelessness is a deeply misunderstood and complex issue. When people hear the term, they tend to associate it with mental illness or problematic substance use. Individuals experiencing homelessness are heavily stigmatized, dehumanized and perceived to be less competent and trustworthy. But the reality is far more complicated than these perceptions.

A 2020 count by the BC Non-Profit Housing Association in Metro Vancouver found there were 3,634 people experiencing homelessness; among them, 1,029 unsheltered and 2,605 sheltered. Only about half had mental health challenges or substance use issues. This count did not include the hidden homeless: people who might couch surf or sleep in their cars.

The longer someone remains homeless, the more likely they are to face trauma, problematic substance use and mental health challenges. This often leads to worse health outcomes in the long term.

Present approaches are failing, as evidenced by the rapidly increasing number of people experiencing homelessness. Relying on short-term shelters has been shown to be more expensive than providing stable housing. It is therefore imperative to try something else.

In 2016, we teamed up with Claire Williams, co-founder of Foundations for Social Change, to create a new solution.

We gave a one-time cash transfer of $7,500 to people experiencing homelessness in Vancouver. This lump sum, equivalent to the 2016 annual income assistance in British Columbia, provided people the financial freedom to pay rent and meet other living costs. The cash transfer also represented a dignified way to empower people to escape homelessness.

It took us two years to galvanize support from partner organizations and donors. We first established a policy agreement with the B.C. government to let cash recipients keep the $7,500 while still being eligible for social assistance. We then worked with credit union Vancity to provide free checking accounts where people could receive their funds.

In 2018, we launched the world’s first pilot randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of the cash transfer on people experiencing homelessness. Our goal was to start with people who recently became homeless at a time when they needed cash the most to avoid being trapped in homelessness.

Our participants

Our team visited 22 shelters in B.C.’s Lower Mainland to screen people who were homeless for less than two years, were Canadian citizens or permanent residents, were between the age of 19-65 and who did not have severe levels of substance or alcohol use and mental health problems. Our sample represented 31 per cent of the shelter population in Vancouver.

A total of 229 people passed the screening. They had no knowledge about the cash transfer. But when we tried to reach out to them again to conduct the baseline survey, we were unable to reach half of them because they didn’t have a stable address, phone or email. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t reach 114 people. So we ended up recruiting 115 participants into the study.

Fifty were randomly assigned to a cash group and 65 to a non-cash group in the randomized controlled trial. The 50 participants in the cash group were informed about the cash transfer only after completing the baseline survey. The 65 in the non-cash group were not.

We tracked participants for a year to assess the effects of the cash transfer. We lost contact with around 30 per cent of participants during this time while some relocated away from Vancouver.

We provided a workshop and coaching to a subset of the participants as additional support. The workshop consisted of a series of exercises to help participants brainstorm ways to regain stability in their lives. Coaching consisted of phone calls with a certified coach trained to help participants achieve their life goals.

Since a study like this has never been done before, we had little evidence to guide our predictions on the impact of the cash transfer. But following best practices, we came up with a few hypotheses on short-term well-being and cognitive function based on previous cash transfer studies. Unsurprisingly, none of the hypotheses turned out to be true.

What we found

What astonished us was the significant positive impacts of the cash transfers. Cash recipients spent 99 fewer days in homelessness on average over one year.

That led to net cost savings of $777 per person per year. That means the cash transfers actually saved the government and taxpayers money. Cash recipients increased spending on rent, food, transit and things like furniture or a car.

Importantly, they did not increase spending on alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. That challenges the stereotype that people in homelessness would squander money they receive on alcohol and drugs.

Between 2018 and 2020, the housing vacancy rate in Vancouver was around one per cent and the wait to get into housing could be up to one year for someone living in a shelter.

However, around 50 per cent of participants in our study moved into housing just one month after the cash transfer. This goes to show how prepared they were to get back to stability. All they needed was the cash support to do so.

But what we didn’t see was substantial improvements in food security, employment, education and well-being. This might be because $7,500 was still a relatively small amount of money in an expensive city like Vancouver.

The average personal annual income among participants was $12,580. So, the cash transfer represented a 60 per cent boost. But despite that, they were still below the poverty line and nowhere close to meeting the living costs in Vancouver.

We also found that neither the workshop nor coaching had an impact on the participants. One reason was compliance; most participants didn’t take part in the workshop or coaching after the first month. Another reason was a possible mismatch between the support on offer and participants’ needs. The support provided was aspirational, designed to clarify life goals and boost their self-efficacy.

But what our participants needed was instrumental support, like getting identity documents, completing resumes and applying for jobs. These instrumental needs could not be easily met by completing a few workshops or coaching.

This study adds more evidence to a growing body of cash transfer studies around the world that demonstrate the need to raise the income floor of marginalized people.

This study is a promising start, laying the groundwork for future research and policies. Governments and experts should explore cash transfers as a way of supporting unhoused and marginalized people.

Author: SCCS

Climate Manifesto

The world is in a climate crisis.  As the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, recently said: ‘humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast.’  He called on the world’s nations to ‘massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe.’

Scotland has been a global climate leader. But, while championing international action is welcome, it still needs to do much more to reduce emissions at home, to prepare for the climate that is coming, and to help less-well-off countries already suffering deep impacts.

We are off track to meet our climate targets and this document is a collection of proposals that could help us get back on track.  It is a wealth of content for those revising Scotland climate plans.  It is a wide-ranging set of plans for political party manifesto writers.  And it is a mine of information for politicians trying to make the world a better place.

From farming to transport and from energy to our seas, the policies in this document cover vast swathes of the economy.  They also show how to change the economy itself and they demand that we make our fair contribution to the rest of the world’s efforts to cope with a changing climate.  The policies in this document concentrate on reducing emissions but also touch on adaptation.  And they outline how climate action can be paid for fairly by making polluters pay.

Most of the policies are for the Scottish Government, but some are for local authorities, some for the UK Government and some for the international community.  Confronting the climate crisis will indeed require doing Guterres’ “everything, everywhere, all at once” and even where the Scottish Government is not the prime mover of an issue, it can influence, incentivise and persuade, a role that it must perform from a position of domestic credibility.

Some policies would directly bring about emissions reductions, some would help to enable behaviour change towards those that are pro-climate by making these choices more affordable and accessible, and some would do both.

Some of the policies in this document could be put in place tomorrow, some quite quickly and some are ideas that need working through with experts and stakeholders.

For some ideas, there is an obvious upcoming opportunity for change – for instance, re-orienting agricultural subsidies through the Agriculture Bill or introducing further producer responsibility schemes through the Circular Economy Bill.

Certain measures would obviously fit well together – for instance, Workplace Parking Levies could help fund free public transport.

Of course, there has already been good progress in a number of areas and SCCS would want to see positive policies maintained and used as a springboard for action at a truly transformative scale. Examples include climate targets, the climate plan process, the ban on fracking, the transformation in how electricity is generated, the 20% car-kms reduction target.

SCCS members, together as the coalition and separately, will be advocating for these policies to political parties, through Scottish Government processes and to the wider public.  Those who are part of international networks will also be promoting them there as well.

Climate Manifesto

Author: Stephen Burgen

Barcelona community resource named world’s best new public library.

A Barcelona library specialising in Latin American literature has been named the best new public library in the world by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions at its congress in Rotterdam.

The library, named after the Nobel-winning Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, opened last year in the working-class neighbourhood of Sant Martí de Provençals.

In awarding the prize, the jury praised both its architecture and its innovative approach to encouraging local people to use the resource, the interaction between staff and the local community, the flexibility of the spaces and services, the commitment to learning and the sustainability of the building.

“We’ve received the prize precisely because we opted for a model that makes the library an extension of the home, with armchairs and spaces that invite people to feel at home,” said Neus Castellano, the library’s director.

“This had led to small children and elderly people in particular spending hours in the library, and they don’t come just to take out books and they spend much longer here. The neighbourhood, which is densely populated and has a lot of students, really needed this library.”

“We never expected to win,” Castellano said. “No Spanish library has ever even been nominated. It’s recognition for all the work the city has put in. Libraries have also played a big role in Barcelona, they’ve always been important.”

Later this year the library will open a “room of the senses” designed for children with special needs and learning difficulties.

It has a capacity of 800 but some days has hosted as many as 1,300 people. As well as readers, Castellano described the phenomenon of “library tourism”, with people coming to the neighbourhood to take pictures of the airy timber-framed building.

Xavier Marcé, responsible for culture on the city council, said the award was a vindication of a policy the city embarked on 30 years ago to create a network of libraries, of which the Gabriel García Márquez was the latest.

García Márquez lived in Barcelona from 1967 to 1975, arriving shortly after the publication of his groundbreaking magical realism novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.

He was one of several leading Latin American writers who have lived in the city, among them another Nobel laureate, Mario Vargas Llosa. The library holds a collection of 40,000 documents relevant to Latin American literature.

It also runs a community radio station called Ràdio Maconda, in honour of the fictitious village of Macondo in García Márquez’s celebrated novel.