A Scottish Charity Award winner is celebrating once more after being awarded over half a million pounds to fund its latest project.

Beith Community Development Trust (BCDT) received £512,000 from the Scottish Land Fund, to turn a former residential school into a community hub.

BCDT, which won the Celebrating Communities award at the 2015 Scottish Charity Awards, will use the cash to buy the 5.24 hectare Geilsland House and School Campus in the North Ayrshire town.

It plans to transform the site in a bid to boost the local economy by creating a number of business incubator units and training centre as well as providing accommodation.

Jane Lamont, development manager at BCDT, said: “Geilsland Campus is a beautiful and important community asset not only for Beith but also North Ayrshire.

We are genuinely thrilled about the scope and opportunities that will now become a reality

“To own it as a community is beyond what we once thought was possible.

“We are genuinely thrilled about the scope and opportunities that will now become a reality.

“It’s been an empowering process for the whole community.”

The Scottish Land Fund is an awards programme funded by the Scottish Government and delivered in partnership with by the Big Lottery Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Its purpose is to help rural communities buy and manage local land and assets.

Six other community groups have also been awarded funding in the latest round of awards.

These include an award of £224,000 for Glengarry Community Woodlands, which will be used to bring 30 hectares of woodland in Inverness-shire into community ownership; to an award of £28,200 for Stratherrick and Foyers Community Trust to buy a patch of land within Lower Foyers to create a village green.

Scottish Land Fund Committee Chair, John Watt, said: “From a dynamic forestry buyout in Aberdeenshire to the creation of a valuable tourist attraction in Scourie, these awards will help to deliver social, environmental and economic benefits for generations to come.

“Each of today’s seven successful groups has worked hard to get to this point and I wish them all every success as they take forward their innovative plans.”

Minister for land reform, Aileen McLeod, added: “These projects, together with the wider Scottish Government work on land reform, through both the Community Empowerment Act, and the land reform bill, will support the Scottish Government aim of bringing more land into community ownership by 2020.

“I am looking forward to watching these communities thrive as they develop the land on which they live and work to realise their goals and ambitions.”

Author: Andy Philip, The Daily Record

A CHARITY leader yesterday warned Iain Duncan Smith that he will face a tough reception when he revisits Easterhouse .

The Work and Pensions Secretary accepted an invitation to return to the housing scheme east of Glasgow.

He famously claimed to have had an “epiphany” on his first visit in 2002.

But the area has been badly hit by his welfare reforms .

Pauline Smith, chief executive of Connect Community Trust, said the Department for Work and Pensions undermined promises to help locals by cutting £100,000 of funding for the year ahead.

She said: “We’ll be as welcoming as we are with everyone.

“But we won’t be shy and neither will our clients as we’re having to turn people away because we don’t have DWP funding this year.” The Connect support network helped 1344 people last year and got 267 into work.

Smith previously met Duncan Smith and explained the problems faced by some of the most vulnerable people in Easterhouse.

She said that without help by voluntary groups, claimants would face “unlimited sanctions” – when welfare payments stop over minor infringements to Jobcentre rules.

Smith added: “He will meet people deemed fit to work who have addiction issues to overcome and are not yet ready for work.

“He will meet people who are so distressed because they’ve never worked for 25 years and he will see people that have been sanctioned coming to us for help.”

Linda Cameron of Provanhall Housing Association said her organisation are stepping in to sort out the mess made by the Tories.

She said: “We would welcome Mr Duncan Smith to see the adverse effect his policies are having on people’s lives.”

Local MP Natalie McGarry secured the promise of a visit after writing to Duncan Smith last month. Employment Minister Priti Patel confirmed Duncan Smith “will be very happy to visit”.

The DWP could not confirm a date for the visit last night

Author: The Guardian

Mark Boyle proved how, in a world dominated by money, he could live in Britain surviving entirely without cash – by bartering, swapping and connecting with local communities. And after three years, what was his first cash purchase? A £4 pair of trainers from a charity shop.

“It was such a weird moment. Living without money had eventually become completely normal for me, and there I was standing in a charity shop handing over a piece of paper and walking out with this really useful pair of runners. It felt as strange as giving it up in the first place had,” he says.

Boyle is the unlikely hero among those who feel consumerism in the west is running out of control. His 2010 book, The Moneyless Man, which sold more than 75,000 copies in 17 countries, not only showed that it was entirely possible to survive in Britain without ever touching cash, but also offered an alternative way to lead a more sustainable life.

He restored and lived in an abandoned caravan, and cycled everywhere. By using a combination of bartering, swapping or gifting his time, and foraging for food – both in hedgerows and supermarket bins – he demonstrated that one could thrive, while at the same time reconnecting with local communities.

Arguably, the highlight of the book was when he and friends produced a banquet for more than 1,000 people at the end of the year using only freecycled food. A bicycle-powered cinema and sound system provided entertainment. People gave what they could – time, skills, etc – and not a single penny changed han

We aim to be a community that explores how to meet our needs in the most ecologically sound and fun way possible

Fast forward to today and the 36-year-old softly spoken Irishman, a former economist who started out managing organic food companies, co-owns a three-acre permaculture smallholding in County Galway in the wild west of Ireland.

Its purchase was part-funded by royalties accrued from sales of The Moneyless Man, an irony not lost on Boyle. But at any one time it now supports between five and 30 people living and working on the site, or visiting. “My moneyless self would probably not be too pleased about it, but I have moved forward and it’s a means to an end that has allowed us to set up the community,” he says.

The collapse in Irish property prices that followed the financial crash allowed Boyle and his partner Kirsty to buy the site for €95,000, while others live there rent free. Armed with £20,000 raised through a crowdfunding appeal in the UK, they and an army of volunteers set about transforming an old pig sty into what is likely to be Ireland’s – and possibly the world’s – first moneyless community pub.

Using inexpensive natural materials such as cob, cordwood, wattle and daub, plus locally freecycled materials, the Happy Pig is now up and running. He estimates it was built for around 11% of the cost of a equivalent construction

 “We wanted a free community space where people from all backgrounds can meet, attend free workshops and courses, eat and drink, dance and perform music, take some time out, and share skills and stories – all without a single penny changing hands,” says Boyle, who has been brewing gorse wine to be consumed in the pub.

In the long run – once the trees and plants come to fruition – beer and cider will also be gifted to those passing through, as well as those living in the community.

The only downside is that Boyle has had to resume using a bank account – albeit one with very little in it.

“I felt very free living without money, and having to fill in tax returns and the like feels like a burden. Despite that, the project maintains much of what I started and hopefully takes it on to a new stage, to a wider group.

“We manage the smallholding without using any fuel so we don’t have a tractor. Manure comes from a local farmer who keeps horses and is desperate to get rid of the stuff, and we grow or forage all the food we consume, which at the moment means eating a lot – maybe too much – kale. We aim to be a community that explores how to meet our needs in the most ecologically sound and fun way possible.”

Boyle says local farmers, many of whom have a long tradition of sustainable farming, have been very accepting of the group, even – albeit unwittingly – joining in with the spirit of the programme.

“I was scything a field but had to stop because I had promised to write an article on gift economics, and while I was tapping away at my computer one of my neighbours came along and finished the job. When I came out the whole field of hay had been cocked. He would never have heard of ‘gift economics’, it’s just a way of life for him,” he says.

In gift economics the idea is that you help others without the explicit promise of anything in return, but in the belief that selfless giving will encourage the recipient to in turn selflessly gift as well. Boyle describes it as “paying it forward”.

Boyle, whose calm demeanour hides a steely determination, works a 16-hour day not just on the permaculture site, but also writing a book he hopes will challenge our preconceptions about how society should be organised.

Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi, published this week, is a fierce attack not just on unsustainable economic and political systems, but on what Boyle says is the failure of many activists and campaign groups to seriously challenge the status quo.

“The politicians, big business and even many of the campaign groups have a vested interest in the business-as-usual model. Look at the environmental movement – to my eyes it is fatigued. Is there a single person here who believes that any of the main political parties have any intention of building genuinely sustainable, healthy communities that live in balance with the rest of the great web of life? If so, why do we continue to put our faith in these structures,” he asks.

A central theme of the book is what he calls the “casual violence” that is now central to western economies. “Take a short trip to your nearest factory farm, where the vast majority of your meat, eggs and dairy come from, and ponder whether industrialism speaks well of us, or is the apex of our humanity,” Boyle says.

“Such run-of-the-mill violence, masquerading as progress isn’t only targeted at the non-human realm; what we are doing to the world we do unto ourselves, in more ways than one. We live in a culture where inexplicably punching someone on the street would provoke outrage, and rightly so; yet where the extirpation of a couple of hundred species every single week due to human activity alone barely raises an eyebrow. It’s time to resist, revolt and rewild.”

Author: The Southern Reporter

The first step in improving travel for Borders residents without regular access to a vehicle is about to go live – a one stop shop.

Four community transport providers are joining forces to provide a joined-up affordable transport network. There is only one central number for customers to ring which means that journeys can be co-ordinated – 0300 456 1985.

BAVS (Berwickshire Association of Voluntary Service). British Red Cross, The Bridge and Royal Voluntary Service are all on board with the new community transport service and it should be up and running within the next month.

The Borders Strategic Transport Board has been set up to gather together all the evidence of transport issues experienced by the young, old and everyone inbetween and then start looking at how to resolve some of them.

Starting in Berwickshire the board held the first of two local meetings in Duns last week, chaired by Helen Forsyth, chair of the Borders Strategic Transport Board and chief executive of Berwickshire Housing Association.

“We managed to get a few keen and active people who talk about the challenges of living in rural Berwickshire,” said Helen.

“ It was a small event but lively. What was most powerful was that both young, old, and in between all felt able to talk and give their ideas and views.

“The board is made up of lots of agencies that are concerned with passenger transport and want to make it better and more effective. We heard from the real experts – the people of Berwickshire.

“We began to think of exciting ways we could use technology to enable a whole range of people to get where they need to go. Now some of the people there will be getting together to see if they can work up some new ideas and projects.

“The next event is in Eyemouth at the High School on October 5, and we welcome anyone local to come and think aloud with us about how we create more transport opportunities in the Borders.”

Inaugural John Pearce Memorial Lecture and launch of the Social Enterprise Collection (Scotland)

On behalf of Glasgow Caledonian University and the CBS Network, it is my great pleasure to invite you to the inaugural John Pearce Memorial Lecture.  Willy Roe, who is Chair of the British Council on Scotland has agreed to give the lecture which will look at social and community enterprise – its origins in Scotland and its future potential.

The event will take place at the Deeprose Lecture Theatre on the Glasgow Caledonian University campus, from 6.15pm on Monday 5th October with more details attached.  Please can you register that you are coming using the Eventbrite. We would strongly suggest that you register soon as there are limited places.

We are now opening this free event up to anyone that would like to attend so I would be grateful if you could circulate the details through your networks and give it as much publicity as possible.

I look forward to meeting you all.

Best wishes

Cam Donaldson PhD and Alan Kay (formerly CBS Network)

What Matters To Me – A Fairer Scotland Card Game

Guidelines on how to play.

 Each table of four to five players has a pack of cards. Each card contains a statement that a player might think would contribute to a Fairer Scotland. All the cards are dealt out at the start of the game. In turn, each player lays one card down on the table that they feel strongly about – either positively or negatively.  These are discussed and debated in terms of how much priority should be attached to its contents. There will inevitably be some issues that have been missed from the original cards that people wish to propose and so some blank cards will be available to record what these are. Assuming some kind of consensus can be reached within the group, each card is placed in one of four boxes. Each box reflecting a different level of priority.

1. This is a fundamental corner stone of a fairer society.

 2. This would be a step in the right direction towards creating a fairer society.

3. This has little or nothing to do with creating a fairer society.

4. This would make Scotland a less fair country than it currently is.

When all the cards have been played and allocated to one or other of the boxes, the tables briefly share with the rest of the room how they have allocated their particular cards. Depending on the available time, this might just involve the cards that have been placed in the highest priority boxes.

Then, starting with the cards that have been placed in the fundamental corner stone box, each table has a discussion about what they consider to be the biggest barriers or challenges in bringing about each of the card’s aspirational contents and ,if they can, suggest some actions that might overcome these barriers. If there is time, they should then repeat the exercise with the cards placed in a step in the right direction box.

Telling Scottish Government what matters to you

Scottish Government have set up a Fairer Scotland website  The intention is that communities should feedback to Scottish Government using any way they want. It could be a blog, or a Youtube clip, Instagram, Twitter or any other form of social media. You could just write a letter and send it in the post!

Good luck!

Author: Phyllis Steven, The Edinburgh Reporter

The Harlaw Hydro Scheme was opened recently by Fergus Ewing MSP Minister for Business Energy and Tourism. The hydro is now generating electricity for the area and revenue for the Balerno Village Trust which supported the project in the early days.

To view a short film which explains how the community achieved this click here

Author: Our Land

To sign the petition to encourage our MSPs to #BeBrave sign here

Our Land calls for five actions to ensure the Land Reform Bill is strong and effective as it can be.

We urge MSPs to #BeBrave in the face of lobbying by landowning interests who want to weaken the already modest measures being proposed.

1. Reinstate the requirement for all landowning entities (like companies) to be registered in a member state of the EU.

2. Hold firm to existing proposals that: reintroduce non-domestic rates to sporting estates and deer forests; provide a mechanism for communities to appeal to Scottish ministers about negligent landowners; require landowners to have meaningful consultation with local communities; demand information and transparency on landholdings; set up a Land Commission; reform inheritance law to equalise land rights among children and improve conditions for tenant farmers.

3. End the 100 per cent exemption on non-domestic rates on derelict land

4. Acknowledge that this Land Reform Bill won’t solve the problem of unaffordable and unavailable land in Scotland and prepare to adopt further measures in the next parliament to tackle land taxation, lack of information about land ownership, derelict and vacant land, absentee landlordism and the exorbitant cost of land for housing.

5. Welcome the #OurLand festival which we intend to run on the Glorious Twelfth every year until land in Scotland is affordable and available and owned by a wide diversity of people, communities, companies and trusts.

Why is this important?

Scotland has the most concentrated land ownership in the developed world. Just 432 people own half of the private land. Land prices are far too high – this is why rents are extortionate, and why young people are leaving when they can’t even get a scrap of land for housing.

For Scotland to flourish and every community to have a say over their resources and their future, we need a strong land reform bill that really tackles all these issues. We’re up against a wealthy landowning lobby who want to water down the Scottish government’s proposals – so we must make our voice heard! Tell your MSPs to back the five demands of the #OurLand campaign and make sure we get a bill that can change Scotland for the better.

The Our Land Campaign was set up by Common Weal, Women for Independence, the Scottish Land Action Movement and campaigners Andy Wightman and Lesley Riddoch to highlight the way unavailable and unaffordable land blights development in the countryside and cities.

Author: Sleat Community Trust

Sleat Community Trust is asking for your help in our attempt to overturn a frankly outrageous issue that has arisen for our wee community group with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).

After five years of effort our community were at an advanced stage of developing a wind energy project in the north of Sleat. It was recommended to us that we should, as a next step in 2011, book a grid connection with the district network operator SSE.

We did this and they charged us £8800 (inc VAT) for the pleasure. Money we could ill afford.

Connection was promised within a year for a 900kW turbine. No physical works were carried out by SSE but a desktop design study was carried out along with the supply of reams of contract papers.

However within a matter of months feedback started to come out from SSE that the grid through Skye was constrained (full) with many waiting megawatts of booked capacity queued for future connection. The best date that could be given for the earliest grid connection for our project was 2021! This to allow the very expensive interconnector to the Western Isles to be constructed to de-load the Skye line along with upgrading works all the way to the Beauly Denny line.

Initially SCT and its subsidiary trading board, Sleat Renewables Ltd who were managing the project, decided to wait. However the recent reduction in government support for renewables made the boards relook at this project and decide that it was unlikely that it was now commercially viable.

We then sought a refund from SSE for our grid connection payment and were shocked to find that they intended to keep £6600 (inc VAT) for the “work” they carried out.

Now we did expect a small administration charge to be deducted from our initial sum, possibly a few hundred pounds, but this charge is outrageous. Even worse we are not a large developer but a small charity. SSE are justifying these costs as part of their Assessment & Design fees none of which were explained to us at the time. They refuse to show any leniency to our request for a more reasonable refund.

Last week SSE supplied us with a cheque for £2258 (inc VAT) as their final settlement which we are adamant that we will not accept or bank.

Please support us by sharing this widely as we try to make them change their minds!

Author: The New York Times

 When Laurell Boyers, 34, and her husband, Federico Bastiani, 37, moved in together in Bologna in 2012, they did not know any of their neighbors. It was a lonely feeling.

“All my friends back home had babies, play dates, people to talk to, and I felt so left out,” Ms. Boyers, who moved from South Africa, said on a recent afternoon. “We didn’t have family or friends connections here. We knew people occasionally, but none in our same situation.”

So Mr. Bastiani took a chance and posted a flier along his street, Via Fondazza, explaining that he had created a closed group on Facebook just for the people who lived there. He was merely looking to make some new friends.

In three or four days, the group had about 20 followers. Almost two years later, the residents say, walking along Via Fondazza does not feel like strolling in a big city neighborhood anymore. Rather, it is more like exploring a small town, where everyone knows one another, as the group now has 1,100 members.

“Now I am obligated to speak to everyone when I leave the house,” Ms. Boyers said jokingly. “It’s comforting and also tiring, sometimes. You have to be careful what you ask for.”

The idea, Italy’s first “social street,” has been such a success that it has caught on beyond Bologna and the narrow confines of Via Fondazza. There are 393 social streets in Europe, Brazil and New Zealand, inspired by Mr. Bastiani’s idea, according to the Social Street Italia website, which was created out of the Facebook group to help others replicate the project.

Bologna, a midsize northern city, is known for its progressive politics and cooperatives. It is home to what is considered Italy’s oldest university, and it has a mix of a vibrant, young crowd and longtime residents, known for their strong sense of community.

Still, socially speaking, Italy — Bologna included — can be conservative. Friendships and relationships often come through family connections. It is not always easy to meet new people. In large cities, neighbors typically keep to themselves.

But today, the residents of Via Fondazza help one another fix broken appliances, run chores or recharge car batteries. They exchange train tickets and organize parties.

About half of Via Fondazza’s residents belong to the Facebook group. Those who do not use the Internet are invited to events via leaflets or word of mouth.

“I’ve noticed that people at first wonder whether they need to pay something” for the help from others, said Mr. Bastiani, referring to the experience of an 80-year-old woman who needed someone to go pick up some groceries for her, or a resident who sought help assembling a piece of Ikea furniture.

“But that’s not the point,” he added. “The best part of this is that it breaks all the schemes. We live near one another, and we help each other. That’s it.”

The impact of the experiment has surprised almost everyone here.

It “has changed the walking in Via Fondazza,” said Francesca D’Alonzo, a 27-year-old law graduate who joined the group in 2013.

“We greet each other, we speak, we ask about our lives, we feel we belong here now,” she said.

The exchanges usually start virtually but soon become concrete, allowing residents to get to know one another in person.

Everyone on Via Fondazza seems to have an anecdote. Ms. D’Alonzo remembers the party she gave on New Year’s Eve in 2013, when her then mostly unknown neighbors brought so much food and wine that she did not know where to put it.

Federico Bastiani brought his son, Matteo, and wife, Laurell Boyers, right, to visit Francesca D’Alonzo. Mr. Bastiani created the Facebook group that has since grown in size and drawn such neighbors together. Credit Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times

“It’s the mental habit that is so healthy,” she said. “You let people into your house because you know some and trust them enough to bring along some more. You open up your life.”

A few months back, Caterina Salvadori, a screenwriter and filmmaker who moved to Via Fondazza last March, posted on Facebook that her sink was clogged. Within five minutes, she said, she had three different messages.

One neighbor offered a plunger, then another a more efficient plunger, and a third offered to unblock the sink himself. The last bidder won.

“Can you imagine, in a big city?” she said, still in disbelief at the generosity. “It’s not about the sink, it’s the feeling of protection and support that is so hard to find in cities nowadays.”

Ms. Salvadori and Ms. D’Alonzo went on vacation in Southern Italy this summer, thanks to two train tickets that the Bastianis could not use and posted on the Via Fondazza Facebook page.

This year, a young woman expressed a concern for her safety and proposed a neighborhood watch.

Another resident, Luigi Nardacchione, responded that she should just call him if she was on her way home late at night, and he would come and meet her.

“I am retired, I have time, why shouldn’t I help?” said Mr. Nardacchione, 64, a former manager of a pharmaceutical company and co-founder of the Social Street Italia website.

“The principle is that we do anything we can do together, and not what divides us,” Mr. Nardacchione said. “That kills loneliness and fear.”

Nothing comes at a cost in the Via Fondazza group. Some of the community’s facilities are donated, but most of the benefits stem from the members’ willingness to help, share and live better.

“It’s a very interesting and exportable phenomenon, a spontaneous way to socialize, supported by digital technology,” said Piero Formica, senior research fellow at the Innovation Value Institute of Maynooth University in Ireland.

“Differently from Italian squares where people used to meet to discuss politics, here people meet to share, to lower costs, to learn from each other and use resources all together,” he said.

At Via Fondazza’s main grocery store, run by a family of Pakistani immigrants, residents can borrow community bicycles or even Ping-Pong rackets and balls to play in the church’s backyard.

“Many people used to come shopping here, but we didn’t really know anyone,” said Maryam Masood, 23, a shop assistant and the daughter of the owner. “Now we do, and life is much more tranquil and happy.”

“You feel like you belong,” she said