Author: Michael Grey, Common Space

MOST SMALL BUSINESSES take on debt in their early days. We’re just starting to turn a profit and it’s a chance to succeed that I’m looking for,” Lorelle McGurran explains in the colourful surroundings of her High Street cafe in Glasgow.

The Blue Chair Cafe, in the middle of Glasgow’s Merchant City and East-end districts, could now be just days from closure – signalling an end to a community business that McGurran has dedicated her life to for the past two years.

In the first year, while building up the cafe from scratch, McGurran took on debt – which now runs up to £10,000 to her council landlord, City Properties. Now her business accounts, which she spreads across the table, show a sharp increase in turnover since those early days – and a crucial transition from the red to the black.

But that progress, and the jobs and tax base her business supports, in now under threat.

City Properties, the council-owned retail arm which took on a mammoth sum of debt (£120m) when it was set up, says the debt issue must be resolved or Lorelle’s business will be evicted.

“As soon as I told my customers that I was going to be leaving not one of them just said ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ They all said ‘No. Don’t let that happen. Something must be done’.

“I think that says that I’ve succeeded in having my customers as a part of this business because they all do feel a sense of ownership here. I think it would be unjust on the local community rather than myself as a business person,” she tells me.

“I wouldn’t have been able to dedicate myself to a business if profit was the only aim. There has to be a creative and community aspect.” Lorelle McGurran

The cafe – in its short two year existence – has become a meeting hub for politics, performance groups and a community group for people recovering from addiction.

In all these cases Lorelle has provided free bookings for campaign groups during the independence referendum, to musicians wanting to host an open mic night and a ’Serenity Saturday’ to provide a safe space for recovering addicts.

It’s an approach to business she says has allowed her to enjoy the work in the cafe, and provide a wider service for the community.

“I wouldn’t have been able to dedicate myself to a business if profit was the only aim. There has to be a creative and community aspect,” she says.

“It’s not a normal business model. I’m not a rampant capitalist. A business isn’t about the product and services – it’s about the people who use it. So everyone who comes in here adds to what the business is.”

In 2013 conflict between local tenants and City Properties came to a head as several owners spoke out against a retail policy that was creating a “graveyard of small businesses”.

Lorelle is the stereotypical image of a small business owner. In two years she has taken three days off, and has invested over £15,000 into the business since it began. She tells me that her family has suffered during her gruelling 80-hour working weeks, but they have also benefited through the communities that they have around them in the cafe.

But those sentiments are unlikely to satisfy landlord City Properties, which already has a reputation on High Street for taking an uncompromising position to its treatment of tenants.

In 2013, conflict between local tenants and City Properties came to a head as several owners spoke out against a retail policy that was creating a “graveyard of small businesses”.

Former planning chief at Glasgow City Council, Steve Inch, joined the criticism – specifically attacking an approach that demanded full rent and evictions, rather than keeping businesses going.

Today empty business properties line the street. Several have closed in the past year.

“We’ve rallied around to support the Blue Chair because it’s a truly valuable and unique community café in the heart of Glasgow.” Aileen McKay

Lorelle has been buoyed by the support of her customers. They have grouped together into a campaign to ‘Save the Blue Chair’, and have launched a fundraising drive to push donations in return for food deals.

Aileen McKay, a Blue Chair customer who has helped to kick the campaign off, explained why she set up the group: “We’ve rallied around to support the Blue Chair because it’s a truly valuable and unique community café in the heart of Glasgow.

“Unlike many of the establishments in the city centre, it’s an independent business that offers its customers a warm, welcoming and safe environment. Our campaign has hit the ground running with a crowdfunder which you can find by searching on the IndieGoGo website for #SaveTheBlueChair.

“Supporters can pledge as much financial support as they feel comfortable with in exchange for delicious treats, both from the café’s menu and Lorelle’s catering. It ranges from a cuppa and a cake, to a wedding cake, from a burger and quiz night entry, to a full catering and event hosting package.

“We want this campaign to be an effort by the community and for the community. So to get on board, follow The Blue Chair on Facebook and Twitter, or pop by to 85 High Street to say hello. You’ll be made very welcome.”

The campaign is already approaching £1,200 in total donations – although they still have a mountain to climb to satisfy the council debt collectors.

McKay and co’s main hopes rest on the cafe constructing a fresh business plan that can present a new debt repayment plan for the remainder of the debt. Lorelle says she is in communication with City Properties and local politicians who support moving forward with a new deal to save the cafe, its staff and the communities it supports.

“If City Properties gave us another year to two years in this place I think they would find the other empty properties – and there are four within two minutes walk from here – would become more sellable,” Lorelle says.

“I’m only in £10,000 of debt. In the greater scheme of things, that isn’t a lot for a business at my stage. In the end the property is owned by the council, City Properties, these properties are owned by the people of Glasgow. These are social properties. I don’t know why this property has got a full Merchant City rent attached to it while not receiving the same level of support that the rest of the Merchant City gets.

“These places shouldn’t have failing business after failing business in them. That’s a sign that the rent prices are too high.”

But a broader solution to Glasgow’s approach to retail – such as the focus on big retail developments like Buchanan Galleries – is unlikely to come fast enough for The Blue Chair Cafe.

To keep her business alive, Lorelle McGurran needs the support of the customers and community that she has contributed to since her cafe began. The question is whether that help will come fast enough.

Author: SCRT

With the growth of Social Finance including Social Investment and Social Banking how do we ensure that it meets the demands of the wider third sector and what is the link between social finance and the creation of a more equal and sustainable society.

Scottish Community Re: Investment Trust is delighted to host the first Conference looking at Social Finance. The conference will be of interest to those who want to learn more about social finance; how we know that it is social and how it works in other countries.

Bringing together practitioners from a range of countries, delegates will also be able to attend workshops on Crowdfunding: Community Shares: Social Banks and the Community Re:Investment Model. There will be panel discussions on ‘How to develop a sustainable financial system’ and ‘The UK Social Finance infrastructure’- all of which will inform delegates wider understanding of social finance  

Author: Sue Hamilton Community Councillor and Planning Democracy Trustee

Are you a member of a Community Council? Would it be helpful to you to be able to make contact with / have conversations with members of other Community Councils?

Since the inception of Community Councils some 40 years ago, there has been little opportunity to make contact with other Community Councils, let alone discover whether there are other folk out there who are dealing with similar issues to your own. There are over 1000 Community Councils in Scotland. Finding the one which might have similar circumstances to your own is somewhat akin to scientists searching for an equivalent to planet Earth somewhere in the universe.

There was once an organisation called the Association of Scottish Community Councils. Unfortunately, just as it was finding its feet and beginning to fulfilling its remit, the Scottish Government reduced its financial support, rendering it nonviable. Sadly, in the summer of 2012, it died.

Somewhere within the Scottish Government (it’s difficult to identify exactly where!) moves were made to provide a replacement supporting structure for Community Councils. The only apparent tangible outcome is a web site (http://www.communitycouncils.org.uk/index.html ) which went live in November last year. It’s very pretty. It may help folk who are starting a Community Council (or new members who don’t quite know what it is they’ve joined!), but it does not engage or encourage communication between Community Councils, or even with its anonymous host. (It seems ‘someone’ has just noticed its morbidity and has recently posted three things: a very dry résumé of the Community Empowerment Bill; some information about Scotland’s Towns Partnership Town Centre Toolkit; and a set of opinion pieces about ‘Creating a Fairer Scotland’.)

At the beginning of May this year, a small miracle happened. A man called Michael set up a Facebook page for Community Councillors called Scotland’s Community Councillors Chewin’ the Fat. It took off like wildfire and now has over 300 members. It’s a public group so everyone can read posts, but posting is restricted to Community Councillors. Plenty of fat is being chewed and we’re all discovering the similarities and strange anomalies that exist between different Local Authorities. Lots of topics have been discussed, advice sought and given, and a sense of community and common purpose is being established across the country. If you are associated with a Community Council, do have a browse. Michael has set up another Facebook page called Join the craik with Scotland’s community councillors. This group is open to everyone who is interested in Scotland’s third tier of democracy whether or not they have anything to do with a Community Council. There is also now an associated web site . Thanks Michael. You achieved in a few weeks what the Scottish Government couldn’t manage in years.

Last year’s Charter report indicated that GWSF members (community controlled)  provide a high level of service as measured by key Charter indicators. This year’s report demonstrates that this has continued, and indeed improved. On twelve out of the 16 indicators, GWSF members (community controlled) as a whole show better performance than other RSLs or LAs. On 13 indicators, there is an improvement from the first year of the Charter. It is important to point out that not every member shows this improvement – on all the indicators, some members report a drop in performance. Tenants are obviously more interested in their own landlord’s performance, while the Regulator focusses on individual landlords rather than groupings such as GWSF. Particular issues that may require consideration are:

 • Achieving SHQS for some landlords

• Offering repairs by appointment, where this is not currently available

The social housing sector has responded to the Charter with improved performance, but GWSF has maintained its advantage over other landlords. This scrutiny of members’ performance supports the view that this position should continue.

To read the full report click here

Author: Kenneth Roy, Scottish Review

One morning 14 years ago, the people of Sighthill, a poor estate in north Glasgow, awoke to the surprising sight of council officials lugging washing machines and other household appliances into empty flats. They took a closer look and saw that there were strangers in their midst, unfamiliar faces wearing unfamiliar clothes from unfamiliar lands. The people of Sighthill were resentful. They wondered what the new tenants had done to deserve a washing machine from the council.

Within a few weeks in the late summer of 2001, more than 3,000 asylum seekers arrived in this pocket of chronic social deprivation. It was an astonishing movement for which Sighthill was ill-prepared. No-one had warned them in advance; no-one had consulted them. Suddenly, people with nothing – the locals – were living alongside people with less than nothing – the dispossessed. It was a recipe for tension which the myopic authorities utterly failed to anticipate.

The results were disastrous. The hostility of the indigenous population spilled over into racist abuse, harassment and even murder with the fatal stabbing of a young Kurdish man. In the aftermath of that incident, many asylum seekers were afraid to leave their homes and some fled to London begging for sanctuary, fearful that they would be next. One of them – a Palestinian – told journalists that he had complained 10 times to the police about threats from local people and that the police had done nothing.

That autumn I chaired a crowded public meeting in Glasgow, bringing together representatives of civic society, to discuss what could be done to reconcile two bitterly polarised communities. The atmosphere was positive, but it was coupled with bewilderment that the reputation of the friendly city had taken such a battering. As a result of that meeting, the charity which publishes this magazine set up a scheme for encouraging the social and economic integration of asylum seekers – an initiative which continues, independently, to the present day.

There is no doubt that the failure to communicate with the local community played a huge part in the serious trouble which erupted in Sighthill; that, and the prejudice of sections of the right-wing media. How much have we learned from these experiences in the intervening years? The answer seems to be: precious little.

Last weekend, Serco – the outfit contracted by the UK government to provide housing for asylum seekers – moved around 120 of its clients to a hotel on the outskirts of a rural village close to where I’m writing this. The hotel was once a grand country house with historical associations, somewhere to celebrate a special occasion or enjoy a peaceful weekend break. It fell on hard times and the new owners built an ugly extension for the coach party trade. The place is unrecognisable from the splendid retreat it used to be.

Without a car, it is fairly inaccessible. It’s a long walk into the village, especially on a wet autumn day like today, and an even longer walk into the nearest town. It is to this isolated spot, far from the facilities of civilised life, that young men – they are mostly young men, apparently – have been moved as part of a large-scale dispersal of asylum seekers out of London. Rumour has it that they will be billeted here until the spring. The boredom of a long winter in a lonely place stretches ahead.

I say ‘around 120’, but I’m not sure of the number. Those of us who live in the area are in the same position as the people of Sighthill in the summer of 2001: officially we know nothing because we have been told nothing. The local press alludes to the secrecy of the operation and reports that the authorities are refusing to say where the asylum seekers are from: could it be Syria? If the small village does have 120 new inhabitants living in its hinterland, proportionately that is roughly equivalent to the several thousand whose abrupt re-settlement caused severe social dislocation in north Glasgow. Yet there has been no attempt to involve the community or to seek its help. When I contacted the local Church of Scotland minister to suggest that the church hall might be opened to welcome the newcomers, I got an encouraging response – but, like me, the minister had only just heard of their arrival.

The village is uncomplaining. The young men are already welcome customers at the shop, where they spend their daily allowance of £5 on toiletries, mobile phone top-ups and cigarettes. On Sunday, before the 9pm curfew, a few ventured out of the hotel in small groups, responding to the locals with a friendly wave. But I am less sanguine about their reception in the neighbouring larger towns, where tolerance of an alien minority cannot be assumed.

A possible clue to public attitudes is to be found in the first TripAdvisor report on the hotel since it became the temporary home of the asylum seekers. It was posted last weekend by someone who lives in the area:

Asylum Seeker/Migrant Hideaway

Stayed in this hotel last night with a voucher deal. Service very poor and hotel is being used to accommodate asylum seekers/migrants. Although they are prohibited from accessing certain areas of the hotel, they can clearly be seen wandering around the grounds and the local area. Wouldn’t even consider returning to this hotel.

Should TripAdvisor really be publishing such material? But there is a larger question. If, despite the colossal humanitarian tragedy unfolding before us in Europe, some people continue to view asylum seekers as little better than captives in a zoo, why are the receiving communities not being properly informed and educated? I have a possible answer. If Glasgow City Council couldn’t get it right then, we should not expect Serco, a company driven by profit and with a limited grasp of the concept of social responsibility, to get it right now.

Author: Voluntary Arts Scotland

Who can enter the Epic Awards?

The Epic Awards are for creative projects that involve citizens, artists and creative people who participate for the love of it and on an amateur basis.

You can be based anywhere in the UK or Republic of Ireland, practise any kind of art form or craft and work with any age group. Your nominated project can be long or short-term, as long as some or all of it took place in the twelve months prior to the deadline of Monday 7 December 2015

A winner and runner-up will be chosen for each of the four awards: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Our judging panel features Voluntary Arts staff, advisory group and board members, as well as representatives of national arts councils.

All shortlisted groups will be eligible for the People’s Choice Award, voted for online by members of the public. Shortlisted groups can also vote for each other to win the Peer Award for Excellence and put themselves forward for additional awards for Excellent Work with Young People and Disabled People.

What we’re looking for:

Groups or projects that show just how engaging, collaborative, innovative and creative amateur arts and crafts can be. ‘EPIC’ stands for Engagement, Partnerships, Innovation and Creativity and entries need to demonstrate one or more of these qualities:

       Engagement: Reaching out and attracting an audience. Do you work with participants from a different background to yourself? Participate in recruitment drives? Or perhaps reach out to younger people or people with disabilities? How do you ensure your group thrives in terms of numbers and diversity?

       Partnerships: Do you work with organisations allowing both groups to function more effectively by sharing information and skills or pooling resources? This could be a local authority, voluntary or community group, arts organisation or commercial company.

       Innovation: Fresh thinking that creates new value. What new ideas and approaches have impacted your group? This could be with technology and media, i,e, TV, film, radio or web or changing how you present your art with unusual venues or audience participation.

       Creative development: Has your group developed significantly in terms of skill levels? How did you achieve this? Did they attend conferences, courses, work with professionals or another art form, read books or share skills with one another? How have you approached the learning element within your group?

Why you should nominate your group for an Epic Award

• To stand out from the crowd – Whether you’re trying to get coverage in your local paper, or shine in a funding application, saying you’ve been shortlisted for – or have won – an Epic Award will let everyone know you’ve got something special to offer.

• To celebrate your achievements – Previous winners have been treated to an all-expenses paid trip to the Winners’ Reception, an occasion one winner called ‘the highlight of our year ’.

• To win prizes – Each year, we award a range of prizes to winners and runners-up. Previous winners have walked away with gift vouchers, free mentoring, art supplies and cash prizes.

Step One

Look at the rules and criteria below to make sure that your group is eligible to apply.

Download an application form and fill it out.

Step Two

Upload completed entries using the form on this site or email to your national office (contact details at top of application form), making sure you have included any supplementary material (photos, press cuttings etc), between 9am on Monday 19 October 2015 and 5pm on Monday 7 December 2015

Step Three

Wait for news of the shortlist to be unveiled in February 2016. If you’re on the shortlist, join us in publicising your group far and wide for the People’s Choice Award.

Author: Nick Underwood, Environment Link

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have come under some heavy fire from some fishing representatives for potentially “devastating” socio-economic impacts, but we contend MPAs will help to recover our seas and boost the resilience of coastal communities in Scotland. In this blog, we explain why a lot of people around rural Scotland, including many progressive Scottish fishermen, agree: by looking after our marine environment, MPAs can be part of a rural and coastal revival.

It’s now not helpful pretending otherwise: MPAs have become a wee bit divisive. We’ve charted here, here, here and here the various twists and turns of developing a network of Scottish MPAs. But if you don’t have time to read, here’s a quick re-cap: these MPAs are ‘in the water’ (ie they were designated in 2014) but there is still no comprehensive fisheries management (except for emergency measures in South Arran and Wester Ross), which means that our fishing fleets continue to catch fish within these parts of our inshore waters just like before – using a variety of methods such as trawling, dredging, netting, creeling and angling. Some of these methods of fishing can damage seabed habitats if deployed in the wrong place – and that is having chronic consequences for the condition of our seas; over centuries of exploitation we have lost – and are still losing – vital seabed habitats which provide an underwater mosaic of nursery and spawning grounds for fish and a range of other benefits. This situation won’t change until fisheries management is developed via separate legislation. The Scottish Government is right now in the process of making this happen.

To read more about this issue click here

Author: Philip Revell, Sustaining Dunbar

We have been running the OurLocality web platform for nearly six years now. It provides a very simple and easy way for any community group, organisation, association, business, enterprise, community council, individual, project or event in the local area to quickly set up a website to showcase who they are and what they are doing. There are currently about seventy active websites using the platform. Many more have come and gone. You can read a brief introduction to how it works here: ourlocality intro.

As they are all hosted on the same platform, it is easy to collate all posts from any of the hosted websites onto a local bulletin board that provides a rolling, hyper-local, news and events information service.

Our IT whiz keeps the platform updated and secure in the background so that users can just get on with using their site.

The basic, free website comes with a whole range of tools and plug-ins and possible themes to allow users to tailor their site to their own needs. Hand-holding and support can be provided to users if they need help doing this.

Whilst donations have been welcome, up until now we have offered this as a completely free service. As a Development Trust we see part of our role as being to support the free flow of information locally that can help to strengthen local connections and democracy.

However, we want to be able to ensure that the service that OurLocality provides can continue in future, whatever Sustaining Dunbar’s ability to carry on subsidising it.  We are therefore starting to look at ways to make it into a self-financing enterprise.

Also, we feel that the concept behind it has great potential that we have as yet barely explored. It would be quite straightforward to directly replicate ‘OurLocality’ platforms across other communities. The opportunity to use it to create a local news and events service ties in with the rapidly changing landscape around provision of local news –as highlighted in the recent  ‘Click and Connect’ report from Carnegie UK.  Replication of ‘OurLocality’ platforms could also create opportunities for growing a shared technical support community. But as well as using it in communities of place, we feel there are possibilities for using the idea to enable and support networking between communities of interest across Scotland, and further afield. Could it for example be used to help Development Trusts, Transition Initiatives, Community Woodland groups and others keep in touch with each other more easily, encouraging and enabling more peer-to-peer inspiration and support?

Anyone with any interest in discussing further is encouraged to get in touch:(philip@sustainingdunbar.org)

Author: Andy Wightman

Land Matters….the blog and website of Andy Wightman

To view the Chanel 4 news film click here

Author: Hillhead Community Council

Hillhead Community Council (HCC) has succeeded in their appeal against Glasgow City Council (GCC) brought to the Court of Session under the Road Traffic Act. The council have announced they have withdrawn from the case.  HCC will now sign its agreement to the withdrawal, which also asks the judge to quash the Road Traffic Order that would have imposed a controversial new parking scheme in the Hillhead area.

Amongst their grounds of appeal was the adverse effect on the air quality in the local area from increased traffic. The impact on air quality had not been assessed by the council prior to implementing changes. This important case is the first successful one of its kind in Scotland.  HCC’s decision to take Glasgow City Council to court was taken reluctantly. It exposed volunteer community councillors to the potential of considerable personal financial risk. 

The appeal was lodged because HCC believed that serious objections and complaints from the local community were ignored.  HCC considered that the revised proposals would bring more traffic into the area, creating a traffic hotspot and increasing the problem of already serious air pollution to the  disadvantage of residents, businesses, young people and visitors alike.

There are good public transport links in place and it is council policy to discourage car travel. A previous court hearing awarded a protective costs order to HCC and the council will no cover all costs in this settlement. 

HCC had to satisfy the court that the case was in the public interest, that it was of much wider than local significance.  HCC are aware parking is a difficult and sensitive subject for local authorities and call for a more consultative and co-operative approach to any review affecting communities than took place in this case.  Local communities are best placed to identify problems or snags in proposals.