Author: Digital Sentinel

A petition to the City of Edinburgh Council opposing the proposed amalgamation of Wester Hailes Education Centre and Currie Community High School has been launched by local residents.

At the time of writing the petition started by Aaron Aitken had over 1700 signatures. It argues that instead of amalgamating the two schools into a new South West Edinburgh High, repair work could be done or new schools could be built on the current playing fields.

The petition argues:

WHEC has been the central point of the Wester Hailes community for almost 40 years and if these proposals became a reality it will completely disturb the locals as many families use WHEC for more than a school. Adult classes and recreational uses of the gym and swimming pool would also be put in jeopardy.

The proposed new locations have more issues that arise as pupils would now need to travel by bus or car instead of walking building a reliance on non eco-friendly methods, unless they were to use a bike on a busy artery road during  the morning rush hour.

Pupils would also need to leave far earlier to get to school on time. There are no shops or amenities around the proposed sites, which means kids who don’t get school lunches or take a pack lunch may go hungry. WHEC is currently surrounded by multiple local shops and bakeries where kids can choose to go.

The reasons given by Edinburgh Council for the proposal which is currently open to informal consultation are:

• The Currie High School building needs to be replaced due to its condition
• The buildings at WHEC are in poor condition and need a lot of investment.
• 14% of WHEC’s catchment pupils already go to Currie High School, only 49% go to WHEC.
• WHEC has a roll of 300 pupils and space for 750. The S1 intake at WHEC in August 2017 was 66 pupils. Projections suggest WHEC’s roll may be 366 by 2030. WHEC’s roll peaked at 576 in 1999 but has been in decline ever since.
• WHEC has a small catchment area and combining Currie High and WHEC would provide a more diverse catchment area.

Local politicians have voiced their opposition to the proposal. Councillor for the Pentland Hills ward Susan Webber said:

As a local Councillor and someone who grew up using the WHEC. I am saddened at the proposals the council has circulated for informal consultation.  I attended Currie High School having lived in Baberton Mains and used WHEC for swimming and badminton.  I have several family members that have recently used the vital cardiac rehabilitation services.

The proposals clearly demonstrate a lack of community understanding and indicate a disconnect with identifying the current and future needs of the wider community.

In an article in the Evening News local MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands wrote:

I was shocked and surprised by the council proposal to close two secondary schools in my constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands.

The two schools involved, Currie Community High School and Wester Hailes Education Centre, are cornerstones of their communities. The staff strive to get the best out of the young people they teach and the schools provide leisure facilities and adult education classes for their local area.

I will be campaigning for the two schools to remain on their existing campus and I would urge parents and all members of the community to take part in the consultation. Only by both communities supporting each other to fight these proposals can we protect our local schools which are the heart of any community.

The Digital Sentinel has reached out to other local Councillors to share their views on the proposal and awaits their response.

The Council is keen to hear the view of parent councils and will be holding consultations with parent councils in all the affected schools between 9 January and 9 February 2018. They ask that you contact your parent council by 22 December 2017 if you would like to take part in these discussions. The topic will also be discussed at Wester Hailes Community Council’s upcoming December meeting take place at Wester Hailes library on Wednesday 6 December 2017, 6.00pm – 7.45pm.

Author: Jill Treanor , Guardian

Royal Bank of Scotland is closing 259 branches, a quarter of its network, in a move that puts nearly 700 jobs at risk and sparked political outcry and warnings about the end of high street banking.

The bailed-out lender said 62 Royal Bank of Scotland and 197 NatWest branches would shut as customers increasingly turned to online banking.

The Unite union said 1,000 roles faced the axe, although the bank – which is 71% owned by the taxpayer – said the move would result in 680 redundancies after redeployment.

Rob MacGregor, Unite’s national officer, described the cuts as “savage”.

“Serious questions need to be asked about whether these closures mark the end of branch network banking … This announcement will forever change the face of banking in this country resulting in over a thousand staff losing their jobs and hundreds of high streets without any banking facilities,” he said.

He asked why the government – which last week signalled it was preparing to sell off its remaining stake in the bank at a loss – was signing off a branch closure programme on this scale.

Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow City minister, said he was astounded the government had agreed to the plan and said Labour would change regulations to stop branch closures where there is a clear impact on local communities.

“As the taxpayer continues to own 71% of the bank, its priority should be serving the best interests of UK customers,” said Reynolds.

The Treasury said it did not intervene in commercial decisions.

The Scottish secretary, David Mundell, sought an urgent meeting with RBS to discuss the impact of the bank closures across Scotland, describing rural branches as “a lifeline for many people”.

Ross McEwan, the RBS chief executive, has repeatedly talked about the increasing use of online and mobile banking. Figures provided by the bank on Friday showed that since 2014 the number of customers using branches has fallen 40% while mobile transactions increased by 73%. One in five RBS customers only use its services digitally.

McEwan is also under pressure to cut costs to bolster the bank’s profitability. When it reports its results in February, the bank is expected to admit it will have incurred 10 years of full-year losses since its taxpayer bailout in 2008. It has already reported £58bn of losses.

It is the second branch closure programme announced by RBS this year, after 158 closures were announced in March. The consumer body Which? calculated that across the industry 1,747 branches have been shut in three years. Those figures do not include the 49 closures announced by Lloyds this week.

The closures will take place in May and June and RBS said it would keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum. “We realise this is difficult news for our colleagues and we are doing everything we can to support those affected,” RBS said.

Consumer body Which? warned about the impact of the closures at a time when there are fears that thousands of cash machines could be removed or start charging – because of proposed changes to the way the system operates.

“At a time when the payment industry is putting forward proposals that could significantly reduce the number of free-to-use ATMs, this news will be even more concerning for consumers who must not be left struggling to access the cash they need,” said Gareth Shaw, a money expert at Which?.

The high street banks argue they have to compete with digital-only rivals such Atom and Monzo, which operate without a branch network.

These digital banks are aiming to capitalise not only on customers’ use of the internet but also to benefit from forthcoming regulatory changes that will make it easier for customers to shop around for financial products.

As it published the outcome of its latest stess tests on the banking sector this week, the Bank of England said that “fintech” – financial technology – “may have profound consequences for incumbent banks’ business models”.

Alongside its usual health check on the biggest lenders, Threadneedle Street looked at how banks would cope in the long-term with technological advances at a time when profits were already under pressure from low interest rates.

Across the sector, the Bank calculated that profits could take a hit of £1.1bn by the end of 2023 and customers should be able to use fintech to manage their money more effectively so be less likely to use an overdraft, through which banks generate £2.6bn of profits a year.

Author: Norette Ferns

The National Council of Rural Advisers has published its interim report.

The remit of the National Council of Rural Advisers (NCRA) is to provide advice on the potential implications of Scotland leaving the European Union (EU) as part of the United Kingdom (UK), and make recommendations on future policy and support, with the aim of ensuring a vibrant, sustainable and productive rural economy.

The ‘Potential Implications for Rural Scotland of the UK leaving the EU’ report covers the former and the potential implications of Brexit on rural Scotland, with a focus on trade, labour and skills, funding, legislation and standards.

It is intended to be a snapshot of rural Scotland and those aspects of rural that the NCRA think are key to informing the Scottish Government in its discussions with the UK Government on Brexit.

The report concludes with a number of key areas that should be taken forward by everyone as we prepare for Spring 2019 and beyond. The NCRA will further explore some of the issues raised in this interim report as we work towards a more detailed set of recommendations to Ministers, due in Spring next year.

Download the Potential Implications for Rural Scotland of the UK leaving the UK report

Author: CTA

Message from CTA Chief Executive , Bill Freeman,  to community transport operators everywhere

Author: Iain Gulland, Zero Waste Scotland

Last week we saw the launch of three more Zero Waste Towns.  Communities in Perth, Leith and Central Edinburgh will now be engaged in local projects aiming to develop new resourceful initiatives and promote sustainable choices.

Building on the legacy of two previous Zero Waste Towns’ initiatives, funded initially by Zero Waste Scotland – but led by communities in Bute and Dunbar respectively, I’m excited to see what’s to come from these three new projects.

The scope and focus of the Zero Waste Town approach is designed by locals with community benefits and aspirations in mind.  There’s no standard template for this.

We’ve seen Zero Waste Bute and Zero Waste Dunbar take hold and flourish – and, importantly, continue with vigour after our funding period came to a close.  For example, Zero Waste Dunbar recently opened a re-use hub right on its high street, an initiative entirely led by the community. The experience in Bute has led to a cross Argyll initiative Re-style Argyll, an on-line retail and donating platform for reusable goods which links up with other community reuse groups across the area.

This continued community participation and action clearly indicates that individual citizens and the wider community are engaged, invested, and see local value and benefit in pursuing zero waste and circular activities.

The activities of a Zero Waste Town vary, depending on what the communities themselves want to do and the opportunities they see.  In this way, Zero Waste Towns reflects the creativity, inventiveness, and commitment of its residents – and for me, this is hugely significant.

Zero Waste Towns demonstrate some of the first steps in awakening Scottish communities to the opportunities offered by the circular economy, a movement towards a society that makes things last and values everything as a resource.

Scotland is blazing a trail in our commitment to growing a circular economy – and Zero Waste Scotland is the lead organisation tasked with making it happen, supported by a collaborative network of stakeholders across sectors and industries and, most importantly, fully backed by the Scottish Government.

We’re covering all angles – working at a UK-level with big business to influence large-scale change; actively supporting SME’s here in Scotland to develop circular economy business models; and promoting sustainable behaviours like buying re-used products straight to the consumer.

But for me, engaging communities has a distinct and crucial part to play in developing the type of circular economy we want for our country.

If the circular economy represents our opportunity to reconfigure our society, we must ensure we do this in ways which include communities from the get-go. For me, this is the only way we can truly transition to a circular economy. It’s also critical in ensuring the transition is inclusive and sustainable in the long term.  Community participation needs to be at the heart of what we do.

Engaging with communities, brought together by locality, is one important way to do this – as we are seeing with Zero Waste Towns.  But my meaning of community extends beyond geography.

The power of communities is evident and can be harnessed in other ways too.  Think of Hack-a-thons where communities of experts come together to be inventive – not necessarily because they are subject-matter experts in the sector set to benefit from the final outputs, but because they love finding technological solutions in any field.  Think of crowd-funding where communities make things possible through investment that otherwise may not be secured.

Inclusive communities are the best breeding grounds for inventiveness and ingenuity – and this is exactly the environment we need to create in Scotland to fuel a circular economy.

After all, the principles of the circular economy embody inclusion.  It necessitates everyone working together to meet regenerative and restorative outcomes – which are to the benefit of all parties involved.

Indeed, I’d go as far to say that this type of collaborative cross-community working is one of Scotland’s USP’s, and something that makes us an ideal environment to pioneer circular innovation and demonstrate how it could work in practice.     

Re-use and repair is the obvious example here.  This is a sector that has been rooted in community involvement for a number of years.  We know the social benefit here from the number of jobs and training opportunities created locally.  Zero Waste Scotland’s Revolve quality standard for re-use and repair organisations is driving engagement to circular economy in the community.

The projects supported through the Climate Challenge Fund provide us with a whole host of other great examples.

But for me, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the opportunities a circular economy could present for communities.

The circular economy isn’t just about big business or entrepreneurs.  In my view, if we seize this opportunity in the way we should, there’s huge potential to ensure we develop a circular economy which prioritises maximising community benefit – building this in as an intrinsic part of the way our society operates.

I am convinced that our communities are the key to developing Scotland’s circular economy, our challenge is to inspire, engage, and harness the inventiveness of Scottish communities of all types and in all locations to work towards circular solutions we can all be proud of – and benefit from.

Let’s place community benefit at the heart of everything we do. Let’s make Scotland a better place to live and work – and continue to build our credentials as a leading circular economy nation.  

Author: Scottish Government

Click here to download the prospectus for Making Place programme

Author: Mark Brown, Arts correspondent, Guardian

Trees are social creatures that mother their young, talk to each other, experience pain, remember things and have sex with each other, a bestselling author has said.

If that persuades you to go and hug the nearest tree, then great, said Peter Wohlleben. Just avoid a birch: “It is not very sociable. Try a beech.”

Wohlleben was at the Hay literary festival in Wales to talk about a book, The Hidden Life of Trees, which has become a bestseller in his native Germany and, remarkably, prompted an online petition against it from scientists.

A former state forester, Wohlleben believes the world has been misled about how humans should treat trees, but he told Hay his anthropomorphising of them had aggravated the forestry industry.

Two scientists from the University of Göttingen started the online petition, calling for “facts not fairytales”, he said. The petition states: “It is very unfortunate … that, through this book, so many people obtain a very unrealistic understanding of forest ecosystems because the statements made here are a conglomerate of half-truths, biased judgments, and wishful thinking derived from very selective and unrepresentative sources of information.”

Wohlleben said he deliberately anthropomorphised trees but everything he wrote was based on science.

“At university we were told that cutting down trees was good for the environment,” he told Hay. “That we are renewing forests. I believed it … it took time to get that brainwash out of my head.”

The wisdom has been to cut down a big tree so the younger trees have more space to grow, he said, but apply that to human society and … “it would be OK to kill the parents? The children will have more space in the house afterwards?”

He criticised the supposedly green policy of power stations replacing the burningof coal with wooden pellets. “We destroy trees to prevent climate change?”

Wohlleben wants society to be more aware of trees’ “feelings”. Trees that are close to street lights, which burn all night, will die earlier, he said.

Pollarding trees – removing the upper branches to promote a dense head of foliage – is also a bad thing. “It is like cutting your fingers, it hurts and it damages the tree very heavily. A wound more than 3cm deep can cause a fungal infection and perhaps 10 or 20 years later the tree will rot.”

He said people pruning trees were often not particularly educated about what they were doing, and that they were in effect killing trees.

He pointed to a study of African acacia trees, which shows how they release a chemical when giraffes start eating them, as evidence of how trees communicate. The chemical released drifts through the air warning other trees of the danger and they in turn begin producing toxic chemicals before the giraffe has reached them.

Wohlleben acknowledged that he used simple expressions to explain himself. When he talked about oak trees using 600 words, he was talking about a chemical language.

Above all most trees want to live socially, said Wohlleben. “Trees don’t want to grow fast. They want to have companions. They want to live in social groups … they support each other.”

Some trees might have sex every three to five years and go the toilet once a year. “They have stuff they need to get rid of so they pump their waste into their leaves. When you are walking through a forest in winter time you are walking through tree toilet paper.”

Wohlleben was a state forester but now looks after a forest on behalf of the community in Hümmel, Germany, where machinery is banned and the trees are left alone.

Wohlleben is adamant that his book is based on facts, and he is merely popularising the truth. “That’s what I want to do. The scientific community have had 40 years to explain to people and no one knows it … that’s not their fault; they have to express it like that.”

For all his love of trees and appreciation for their feelings, Wohlleben said he was not suggesting we should stop sitting on wooden seats – although we should be aware they are “tree bones” – or not put wood on the fire – “the burning corpse … It is OK to use it. I’m not against using wood otherwise I wouldn’t sell any books. But we should think about what we are doing at least.”

The Hay festival audience was rapt and his book sold out within minutes at the site’s bookshop.

All of those good people were buying slaughtered trees but should not feel guilty. “My aim is that everyone loves trees and when you love trees you do the right thing,” he said.

Author: Scottish Communities Finance Ltd

Scottish Communities Finance

SCF Ltd focus is to assist communities (both place based and thematic) all across Scotland to be more viable and vibrant. We believe that by encouraging ordinary people to reinvest back into their communities, by pooling their available financial resources and lending it to community businesses and social enterprises, that communities will be more sustainable.

We do that by working the ‘community partners’ to issue Community Bonds that can be purchased by individuals and organisations and using that money to establish bespoke, individual Community Loan Funds. 

Purchasing Community Bonds is about making an investment in your local community. Becoming a Community Investor shows your support for your community and by doing so encourages regeneration, local job creation, vibrant local facilities and a diverse economy.

Community Loan Funds offer micro, unsecured and affordable finance to social and community enterprises that provide goods and services to communities often where there is market failure. These services and products are essential for ensuring resilient and vibrant communities, but unfortunately these businesses are increasingly unable to obtain the finance they need from mainstream banks and other lending institutions.

Author: Christopher Cardona, Program Officer, Philanthropy

Has the time come for participatory grant making?

At the Ford Foundation, we know that having genuine connection or access to the lived experience of the people we seek to serve is key to the success of our decisions, impact, and legitimacy. That’s why we have long supported efforts to improve philanthropic practice—in our own organization and the broader field—with a special emphasis on making it more equitable and inclusive.

In this time of dramatic change, people are becoming distrustful of established institutions, including foundations, and are demanding greater accountability and transparency. Across sectors, elite-driven, top-down decision-making is increasingly viewed with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Foundations that are unwilling to examine their decision-making practices risk being seen as part of the problem, rather than as the problem-solvers they were established to be.

Read the paper: Participatory Grant Making: Has its Time Come?

Auspiciously, a growing number of foundations around the world are experimenting with new approaches to philanthropy—approaches focused on engaging people from outside their institutions in everything from setting priorities and developing strategies to sitting on foundations’ boards or advisory committees. Some foundations are also partnering with these stakeholders to make grant decisions.

So what exactly are these foundations doing, and why is it important? What can we learn from them? To answer those questions, the foundation commissioned Cynthia Gibson, a long-time student and practitioner of participatory approaches—including one of the first national participatory grant making initiatives by the Case Foundation—to study their efforts. Case’s effort was noteworthy because most participatory programs are place-based and local, which raises an interesting question: Has the time come for a broad swath of foundations, including national foundations like Ford, to take on participatory approaches, including grant making?

This paper shows that it’s a question well-worth asking. It also contributes to a burgeoning discussion in the field: The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy recently hosted a webinar on participatory grant making, and GrantCraft will release a guide on the subject in 2018. We’re hopeful this paper can help move that discussion toward action.

Author: A report from ResPublica

Launched on 20th November, ResPublica’s new report – Heartbeats on the High Street: How Community Pharmacy can transform Britain’s health, wealth and wellbeing – highlights the unique role and “social capital” of Community Pharmacy. By putting pharmacies at the heart of public health, we argue that they can become vital institutions of localism, care and social reform.

The NHS is under unprecedented strain from the rise of long-term conditions and an increasing population. As doctors and hospitals struggle to meet capacity, this report makes the case for Community Pharmacy as a transformative solution for the health and wellbeing of our country.

A system in crisis needs radical ideas for change. Doctors and hospitals are vital in the fight against disease, but they cannot be expected to carry the burden of unhealthy lifestyles and long-term conditions like obesity, hypertension and diabetes. We need a local, people-focussed resource that can tackle these conditions at root. And because many of these conditions are linked to problems of social and economic deprivation, we need an institution that is already connected with our most disadvantaged communities.

Community Pharmacy is embedded on high streets in almost every part of the country, including our most deprived neighbourhoods. It is staffed by a network of clinically trained professionals who have the capacity to prevent illnesses that cost the taxpayer billions of pounds each year. This report calls for a greater role for pharmacies in the fight for good public health. It recommends giving Community Pharmacy leadership in preventing and managing long-term conditions, by making NHS health checks for the over-40s available to the whole adult population. Because these conditions harm employment and productivity, and lead to inequality and isolation, the report shows how a greater use of Community Pharmacy reduces social inequality and increases economic savings.

Rt Hon Sir Kevin Barron MP, Chair of the Health Select Committee 2005-2010 and Chair of the All-Party Pharmacy Group said: “The NHS is in need of radical change. As we face the prospect of another winter crisis, we cannot keep repeating the same old debate over GP capacity, long-term conditions and primary care reform. What we need is a vision that includes all of the resources we have at our disposal, and puts them to use in a truly integrated way. This report makes a valuable contribution to the debate over how our healthcare institutions can better serve the wellbeing of society. I commend ResPublica for their important and timely intervention”.

Katharine Jenner, CEO of Blood Pressure UK said: “Around one in three people in the UK are now living with high blood pressure which remains the single biggest cause of death. What’s more, a shocking 6.5 million people still remain undiagnosed. Blood Pressure UK supports this health check initiative, as we encourage everyone to make a habit of knowing their blood pressure numbers, as this is the first step to reducing their blood pressure and risk of stroke and heart attack. If you start making small changes to your lifestyle when you are young such as eating less salt, more fruit and vegetables, taking more exercise and keeping to a healthy weight, you will stay healthier and prevent strokes and heart disease in the future”.

Heather Henry, Chair of the New NHS Alliance said: “Community pharmacy is highly accessible and non-stigmatising, so it is central to the battle of tackling health inequality.  This sector has long been undervalued and its potential for social, as well as clinical innovation is massive.”

Phillip Blond, Director of ResPublica said: “Community pharmacies are an untapped asset on our high streets and should be viewed as a key institution for delivering primary care and reducing the burden on GPs. The Government can no longer afford to overlook the value of community pharmacies to local communities and the range of social and economic benefits they can bring.’’