They claim the re-opening of the Borders route for the first time nearly 50 years is one of the greatest achievements of grassroots rail campaigning in British history.

The Campaign for Borders Rail (CBR) is now urging others lobbying for the re-opening of rail lines in Scotland to take tips from 17-year Borders push that will culminate in the return of trains next month in an official opening by the Queen, on the day she becomes Britain’s longest-serving monarch, and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The call comes as the successful Borders result was said be helping to add momentum to other campaigns including two in Fife.

The Borders Railway will be officially re-opened with an historic steam journey along the Edinburgh-Tweedbank route to celebrate the launch of its first passenger services on September 9, a few days after the 30-mile, £350 million route opens to passengers.

Nick Bethune, CBR’s UK parliamentary officer, called on others carrying out campaigns to prepare to be persistent, adding “it’s quite clear that the (CBR) campaign has had to be consistently willing to challenge the establishment, to rock the boat with well-informed and innovative ideas, sometimes against implacable official opposition.

“The other secret of CBR’s success has been the way it galvanised public opinion, helping to convince Borderers that they really could get their railway back.”

The message was echoed by Petra Biberbach, CBR founder member and its first chair from 1998 until 2002, who said: “For me the lessons are, first, campaign groups are not elected, so you have to seek a mandate and get the people on side, which means working in partnership with other groups who share your aims, and avoiding an attitude of ‘them and us’.

“Second, you need to be politically savvy and know when to work with the system, and when to challenge it, and third, passion, persuasion and tenacity are required.

“And in CBR’s case, well-informed and constructive criticism eventually brought some significant improvements to the Borders Railway specification.”

Allen Armstrong, of the LevenMouth Rail Campaign (LMRC) which is seeking re-opening of the line from Thornton to the town of Leven, said the Borders result had been a boost.

He said: “LMRC has been inspired by the recent wave of rail re-openings, especially the Borders campaign, and the reimagining of a more rational and inclusive transport network.

“The Borders Railway must not be the last.

“Despite feasibility studies here concluding a very strong case for reinstating the Thornton-Leven line, we also appreciate from the Borders example that ultimately it is politics that exerts greatest sway in these decisions.’

Jane Ann Liston, convenor of the STARlink campaign which has led a 26-year fight for reinstatement of five miles of track between the East Coast Main Line and St Andrews – closed on the same day as the Waverley Route through the Borders – said: “The sheer dogged persistence of the campaigners in the Borders and their refusal to give up for nearly 50 years shows that tenacity pays off in the end.  

“We in St Andrews salute their achievement and hope that it will pave the way for the reconnection to our town, an incredibly important destination and economic hub, through being a top tourist destination and the home of Scotland’s oldest university.

“Enabling direct rail services from the Home of Golf to Scotland’s capital as well as to Dundee would be a great boost for the whole area.”

Author: Scottish Government

Alex Neil announces fund to help communities regenerate town centres across Scotland.

Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil has announced £1.7 million of funding to help revitalise and regenerate town centres across Scotland.

The Town Centre Communities Capital Fund is open to community organisations to support capital projects which will make real and lasting improvements to town centres.

Mr Neil made the funding announcement while on a visit to the Beith Development Trust in North Ayrshire, he said:

“Scotland’s town centres need to be fit for the 21st century, offering a diverse range of businesses, services and activities that meet local demand. There are already a few examples of communities getting involved in their town centres, introducing innovation and helping to reclaim them as vibrant social spaces.

“The Scottish Government recognises that people across Scotland are interested in the future of their town centres. This £1.7 million through the Town Centre Communities Capital Fund is intended to support enterprising communities with project proposals that complement our Town Centre Action Plan.

“By enabling and supporting enterprising community organisations to take action, we can help make town centres attractive and accessible places that are the thriving civic spaces we know they can be.”

Jane Lamont, Development Manager at Beith Development Trust, said:

“At Beith Trust we work alongside local people to provide opportunities for learning, skills development and personal growth which enable people to step up as makers and shapers within their community and lives rather than simply exist as users and choosers of services designed by external consultants.

“We believe in making things happen in town centres and in communities incrementally building up to bigger projects that can then help to transform the community. As well as our sports offer, we are now based on the High street in Beith which enables more people to connect with the different services that the trust offers. Being visible and joined up is key to the success of any community based organisation.”

An ambitious plan to transform the fortunes of a north Skye community based on a significant upgrading of its harbour, could cost more than £18m.

But community leaders are determined to find funding which could see Staffin become a major new centre for fishing, processing and marine tourism. More than 60 new jobs could be created in the community of just under 600.

The Staffin slipway, built more than a century ago, was a lifeline for generations of local people with essential supplies being delivered by boat, according to the Staffin Community Trust.

The original slipway was built in the early 1900s by the Congested Districts Board, which was set up by in 1897 by the Government for the improvement of certain depressed areas of the Highlands and Islands.

In 2000 the slipway was extended with a new breakwater, but it still cannot be accessed for loading or unloading vessels at certain times because of low tides.

In 2011 a community survey showed improvements at the slipway was the main priority for people living in Staffin.

Two years later a company called Skye Sea Harvest Ltd approached the trust because it wanted a suitable location for a new seafood processing facility. It has been working with the community since.

Funding for initial feasibility studies was provided by the company and matched by the European Fisheries Fund.

The plan is to build a fish processing unit with a dedicated pier for wellboats servicing local fishfarms; better landing facilities for local fishing and cruise boats; as well as pontoons for visiting yachts. Crucially there would be access at all states of the tide.

A new report for the community trust by consultants has now put the cost of additional studies, construction, dredging and installation of services at £18.6m. Rock from a local quarry is recommended for use in the project. Forty jobs could be created in seafood processing and a further 20 in other marine and tourism activities.

Despite the high cost there is great local determination to see the vision realised, Hugh Ross, the community trust’s local development officer said:

“The Staffin Community Trust is fully committed to the Staffin Slipway Development and is determined to deliver this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure permanent employment for the district and reverse the area’s economic decline. In every community consultation held in Staffin the redevelopment of the slipway has always been the main priority for local people. The Scottish Government has major targets to grow both the salmon production and marine tourism markets by 2020 and the trust believes the slipway development ticks all the boxes. The trust and Skye Sea Harvest are currently investigating funding sources, with guidance from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, to progress the development.”

Author: Martyn Evans, Carnegie UK

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” has become a cliché. But that does not stop it being true. A poor culture within a service will undermine the best strategy. A positive culture will always add substantial value and embrace change. The public library service in Scotland has an extraordinarily positive culture. I should not have been surprised that this was reinforced at every library visit and meeting I attended the across Scotland.

The Strategic Group wanted to articulate clearly the activities, aims and impacts of our public libraries in a way that draws in and engages a wider set of partners, advocates and stakeholders.  The Strategy also challenges those who say ‘but libraries already do all this’: examples of innovative practice do exist of course but this does not equate to good practice across the board. There is also a lack of convincing evidence of libraries’ contributions that is at all meaningful to Scotland’s decision-makers and influencers.

The approach of our Strategic Group was to work out how best to provide both a map and a compass: a map to show the terrain ahead and a compass to set a clear direction of travel. We wanted to be realistic about the challenges before us, and to provide suggestions about how the public library service can be equipped to tackle this terrain, showing how they can plot a way through the ever-changing territory which is the future.

We hope to strengthen the role of libraries in their local communities, while at the same time encouraging stronger partnerships, stimulating innovative practice and promoting shared learning. We have worked hard to sift through the evidence and views of library funders and providers, users and non-users of public libraries. We have learned from library services in other jurisdictions of the UK and further afield.

As with the rest of the UK and beyond, public libraries in Scotland are undergoing a period of disruptive transition. Digital technology has led to a sea-change in how information and knowledge is created and shared, there is a decline in book-lending, the needs and aspirations of communities are shifting, and within the sector there is a need for stronger leadership. Finally, although public libraries are statutory services in Scotland, they have not been championed in any particular national policy – and the current economic climate and drive to identify efficiency savings means there is no room for complacency.

Given the breadth of the challenges, the Strategic Group took an evidence-based and inclusive approach. There was independent deliberative research, questionnaires to gather views throughout the service, a series of presentations by library and non-library stakeholders (including approaches in Nordic countries and digital participation in Scotland), and a visits to public libraries across Scotland.

The Group built up a picture of a service in transition, keen to embrace the opportunities of digital technology and partnership working but at times struggling with skills and capacities and the need to articulate and evidence their contribution to outcomes for the public. The Group also resolved to remain focused on a positive future for the service – a future where libraries shift from safeguarding and lending information to actively helping citizens engage with information to improve their wellbeing, aspirations and potential.

Our eventual strategic vision is that ‘public libraries are trusted guides connecting all of our people to the world’s possibilities and opportunities’.  It was also clear that libraries are part, albeit an important part, of a wider, ‘shared civic ambition to fulfil the potential of individuals and communities’. This became the mission.

To read a full copy of the report click here

Author: David Janner-Klausner

It is brave to speak of beauty. It is doubly brave to do so in a public policy context, where there is suspicion of abstract notions, and where austerity can push aside almost all impulses other than immediate utility.

The emergence of a new paradigm of a permanently smaller public budget that makes the discussion of a public right to beauty not just brave, but urgent. The traditional civic actors – local authorities, conservation bodies – and newer ones such as the Heritage Lottery Fund – are becoming weaker. Local authorities have traditionally played a great part in defining local planning policies (although the Government is prone to nationalise aspects of planning when it suits it). In their place we see some control of public realm passing to developers, with local authorities bargaining away ownership and diversity of access and use, in exchange for order and maintenance.

A new paradigm cries out for new civic actors. ResPublica’s report points to Neighbourhood Planning as a key new framework for civic action, yet soberly documents the relative scarcity of successful neighbourhood planning to date. Faced with the redrawing of civic capabilities, the time has come to establish a wider category of local civic actors whom I call “Publicteers” – a play on the “Privateers” who equipped a ship and were licensed to sail alongside the official Navy. “Publicteers” are community groups taking over management of libraries; exercising the Community Right to Bid for local public assets; or contracting with local authorities to maintain parks. More controversially (due to the availability of generous funding), some Free School initiators could also be seen as “Publicteers”.

How do we create a political and public climate in which the “Publicteers” are legitimate and supported? For this to happen, we will need to look closely at the relationship between grassroots activity and elective democracy. The tension in this relationship is one of the factors inhibiting neighbourhood plans – some councillors may be reluctant to allow new loci of power, and (rightly or wrongly) see vanquished political foes come to life in Neighbourhood Planning Forums. It will be communally beneficial to allow in “Publicteers”, but the political comprehension of this is not as widespread as it should be, nor are the mechanisms to make it work. We will need to reassess the traditional role of local government, which if cuts continue at the current trajectory could be reduced to delivering social care and, for the rest, mostly just articulating of a framework of “local sensibilities” in which it can barely invest.

The internet has a role to play in the new paradigm, and tools are emerging to help citizens participate, mobilise and fundraise. Our set of web-based tools for engagement, “Commonplace”, is based on maps that are generated through public comments and are placed in the public domain through open internet addresses. Commonplace is helping to communicate local plans and engage people in shaping them transparently – crowdsourcing local opinion on what features in the public realm are valued and how the public realm could be improved. Some of our clients are also looking at Commonplace as a mobilisation tool, bridging the gap between visual engagement and physical involvement . And alongside new forms of representation, we are seeing some aspects of the “Sharing Economy” starting to impact on civic spaces – Spacehive (www.spacehive.com) is an excellent example. We should encourage this emerging ecosystem of web tools for civic spaces and causes and extend to how these spaces are maintained day-to-day. ResPublica’s research is clear – maintaining the quality of existing environments through removal of litter and general upkeep is critical to how people perceive the quality of their localities, and impacts on a sense of self-worth and hence capacity and willingness to engage.

Engagement is critical – not only to provide resources and legitimacy A fundamental challenge in the fragmented delivery system based on “Publicteers” is that of equality – preventing advantage mirroring advantage. The Report rightly highlights the link between higher income and greater access to beauty. Addressing inequality when central social institutions that are capable of redistribution are becoming weaker is a major challenge. The Report points to some of the answer being in improving regulation and fiscal mechanisms, to embed a drive to beauty more securely in local development and apportioning of resources. Tackling local governance so that it partners with “Publicteers” for achieving wider social goals is the corresponding democratic challenge.

“Publicteers” are not new – they have existed for decades if not centuries in the form of a myriad of social organisations and private charities. What is different now is that we need to re-invent their role after several decades in which they were eclipsed by activist and expanding central and local government. This rebirth will happen in an era of unprecedented openness and communication. Turning the openness and communication – much of it facilitated through the internet – to advantage and to shaping the new paradigm is a key challenge and opportunity. Expressing preferences about beauty, and moderating different options for the public realm, is a key test of the tools for the new paradigm. At the launch of “A Community Right to Beauty” last month, ResPublica promised to seek local government partners to conduct just such a test in the real world. Bring it on!

Author: Prof David Adams, The Herald

Imagine that an area one and three quarters the size of Dundee lay vacant or derelict, and that most of it had lain in that condition for at least 20 years. Would there not be demands for the Scottish Government to take action? Would there not be debates in the Scottish Parliament about the unacceptability of such a state of affairs?

Well, the truth is that an area of such size does indeed lie vacant or derelict in Scotland. It’s enough land to build around 380,000 new houses without encroaching on a single green field, in the very unlikely event that it were all used for housing. About 11,000 hectares in all. That figure has hardly changed for the past 15 years and more than half of the land has been in the same condition for more than 20 years. It’s simply spread around Scotland, not concentrated in a single place.

However, there are many more in places such as Fife, Glasgow, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire than elsewhere in Scotland. And the land is concentrated in the most deprived communities, with more than 50 per cent of people in the most disadvantaged datazones living within 500 metres of a vacant or derelict site, compared to only around 10 per cent in the least deprived zones.

The sheer scale of vacancy and dereliction, and the fact that it had changed so little for so long, should demand urgent action from the Scottish Government. So it’s surprising that, when the Government introduced a new Land Reform Bill into the Parliament this June, it had virtually nothing to say about urban vacant and derelict land.

And it’s even more surprising because the report on which the Bill is largely based (that of the Government’s own Land Reform Review Group), made precise recommendations to help reduce land vacancy and dereliction. Ironically, these have been passed to yet another round of consultation, while the Government presses ahead with a Land Reform Bill that is largely rural-based. But important as rural areas are, that’s not where most people live.

So what did the Land Reform Review Group recommend to transform land use in Scotland’s towns and cities? A new Housing Land Corporation and more public-interest led development to boost housebuilding and urban regeneration; streamlined compulsory purchase procedures to modernise laws that date back to 1845; measures to overcome fragmented ownership of development sites and enable quicker development; and, intriguingly, the introduction of compulsory sale orders to confront owners who hold on to vacant or derelict land unnecessarily, when others could make use of it.

Compulsory sale orders (CSOs) would enable local authorities to require that specific land vacant or derelict for an undue period of time should be sold by public auction to the highest bidder. The local authority would have powers to organise the auction if the owner failed to act, or if the proposed arrangements for holding the auction were unsatisfactory.

Alongside private developers and public authorities, community bodies might also bid at auctions to provide more open space, allotments or community gardens as well as promote new development in their areas. But there would need to be measures to avoid speculative purchases by parties continuing to keep the land vacant.

Contrary to popular perception, urban vacancy and dereliction in Scotland is now primarily a matter of private, not public, land ownership. As CSO powers would be discretionary, it would be for local authorities to decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not to exercise them. But the Land Reform Review Group thought that keeping land vacant when someone else could put it to beneficial use impedes the chances of achieving sustainable and resilient settlements. In such circumstances, research has shown that a change of land ownership is often an important step towards re-use or redevelopment and that unrealistic owner expectations of what land might be worth is partly responsible for semi-permanent vacancy.  

It’s time to tackle urban vacancy and dereliction. Not many CSOs might actually be needed to achieve this. But will the Scottish Government begin to take urban land reform as seriously as it does rural land reform?

Professor Adams holds the Ian Mactaggart Chair of Property and Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow. For more on the LRRG’s proposals visit

Author: Caroline Leckie

IT’S a famous phrase which originated with the philosopher and novelist George Santayana: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Now along comes George Osborne to remind us of the historical illiteracy of people in high places. In 2008 Gordon Brown handed over £45.8 billion to RBS shareholders – the equivalent of £5.02 per share. For those of us who don’t dabble in the stock exchange, it seemed like an extraordinary act of generosity. When you back the wrong horse at the bookies, you don’t expect someone to come along and hand you back most of the money you’ve just gambled away.

Now his Tory successor is planning to sell off the 82 per cent public stake in the bank at the bargain basement price of £3.57 a share at current prices. That will mean a net loss to the taxpayer of £13bn. No wonder the bankers are laughing all the way to the banks. And no wonder millions of us wouldn’t trust either Brown or Osborne to run a fish and chip shop, let alone the UK economy.

People are rightly furious at this latest rip-off, which will cost every household in the UK £500. But isn’t it time to look beyond the incompetence of our politicians to question the principles that underlie our financial system?

The first publicly owned bank was established in Genoa in 1408 in order to, in the words of its constitution, “eradicate certain bad practices of bankers, who are so devoted to their own interest that they barely blush as they ruin the public good”.

Exactly 600 years later, the bad practices and self-interest of bankers wiped out 45 per cent of the world’s wealth. Millions of livelihoods were destroyed and millions of people are still paying the price for their economic vandalism – in wage cuts, food banks, unemployment, the ravaging of public services and the plight of a generation of young people who for the first time in modern history can expect to be poorer than their parents.

For decades, private bankers used our money to indulge in the biggest gambling spree in the history of the world, while politicians looked on like the crowds in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale applauding the emperor’s naked procession. No-one could bring themselves to state the bleeding obvious.

For decades before, Wall Street, the City of London and similar institutions worldwide worshipped the free market the way the ancient Druids worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars. It could do no wrong. But in 2008, free market capitalism was exposed as a false god. Had it been left to fend for itself, the world economy would have melted away like a snowman in the desert.

The “free” market was only free while the going was good. When things started to go wrong, it needed the state to bail it out. Billions of pounds of public money, which really could have made poverty history (that worked well, eh?) suddenly became available to bail out the banking system.

It’s hardly a great surprise that the Tories are desperate to hand over public money to wealthy bakers. They always have been on the side of the rich and always will be.

But where are the big hitters in the other parties who are prepared to ask the most fundamental question of all?

Why should RBS be handed back to the same people who just a few years ago brought the ceiling crashing down on everyone?

The bankers have had a bit of bad press, sure. Maybe a few have had to downgrade their Lamborghinis. But their punishment has hardly fitted the crime.

I don’t care if it’s this year or next year. Or whether or not the share price improves. Surely the most pressing question is this: how do we stop them getting their hands on our assets ever again?

For politicians, public ownership has become a taboo subject. It’s assumed that the natural place for banks is the private sector, and that these institutions exist first and foremost to make profits for shareholders. But the reality elsewhere in the world tells a different story.

Germany emerged from the ashes of the Second World War to become the strongest economy in Europe partly because of its strong, publicly owned banking system. To this day, half the total assets of the banks in Germany are in the public sector. Most German banks are either in the public sector, and run by local, regional or central government, or are organised as co-operatives.

Three of the fastest growing economies in world – China, India and Brazil – are all underpinned by a strong publicly-owned banking sector.

Meanwhile, the only state-owned bank in the United States – the Bank of North Dakota – is, according to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, “more profitable than Goldman Sachs, has a better credit rating than JP Morgan Chase, and hasn’t seen profit growth drop since 2003.”

Author: Community Shares Scotland

To view a short BBC news clip of this story  click here

Community Shares Scotland and the Portpatrick Harbour team have been in close collaboration in recent months to develop a Community Share offer to secure the regeneration of the harbour whilst keeping it at the heart of the community.

The Portpatrick Harbour Community Benefit Society committee will be reaching out to locals and interested parties this week to get behind the offer, by registering their interest and pledging to become investors – ahead of the Community Share offer launch. The target for investment is £75,000 for monies needed to make the harbour project possible and with a full head of steam, the first Community Share offer is due to be launched later this summer.

The exciting and ambitious community ownership plan to regenerate Portpatrick Harbour has been given a boost this week as the Lifeboat Week gets under way.

Working closely with the Community Shares Scotland team, Calum Currie, chair of the new Community Benefit Society, said:

“We are reaching a real landmark stage and the excitement is really building locally. We have worked hard to explore different ways of approaching the community harbour project and it will mean a lot to gain recognition as the first Scottish Community Benefit Society with charitable status seeking to raise a Community Share offer. The main aim of the project is to secure the integrity and appearance of the historic harbour of Portpatrick for the benefit of the community and all who love and visit it.”

In December 2014, TSI representatives gathered for a two-day Forum to review evidence and deliberate on the future of Community Planning (CP). They started by outlining broad ideas, values and principles to guide their deliberations, and agreed that the overarching aim is to achieve ‘better outcomes, better lives’, with particular focus on tackling inequalities. Forum participants then mapped problems and barriers that stand in the way. On the basis of that work, they then generated 17 Vision Statements around 4 themes:

 • Developing a new role for CP in local democracy

• Turning CP into a space for collaborative and participative decision-making

• Improving how CP works

• Developing a new role for the third sector in CP

The Vision outlined in this document offers a bold approach for reimagining CP as an empowered space capable of developing better services and solving local problems through policy innovation. This is a collective Vision for ‘Democratic Community Planning’.

Towards Democratic Community Planning

The TSIs’ representatives involved in creating this Vision did not only focus on the role of the third sector. Instead, they chose to take a broader perspective to stimulate debate on the future of CP in the context of local governance in Scotland. Their ideas and proposals stem from a third sector perspective, but are clearly connected to current strategic thinking for reform across public services.

Accordingly, the Vision Statements echo, and build on, key recommendations and policy frameworks from various sources, including the Christie Commission, the Community Empowerment Bill, the Early Years Collaborative, the Public Bodies (Joint Working) Act, the Scottish Government and COSLA’s Statement of Ambition, reports from Audit Scotland, and the COSLA Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy.

This Vision is, therefore, broadly in line with the direction of travel currently supported by a broad range of policy actors in Scotland. However, it offers a bolder approach to invigorating CP by transforming it into a space for collaborative and participative policy making.

The Forum was clear that the overarching aim should be to achieve ‘better outcomes, better lives’, and that tackling inequalities should be central to this agenda. Consequently, participants argued that CPPs ‘must become true decision making bodies’ capable of ‘demonstrating impact’, instead of being ‘secondary arenas’ with limited capacity to make a difference. The Forum put it this way: ‘If CPPs can demonstrate that they are where power and resource sit, and shows that involvement influences real decision making, then it encourages community engagement and participation’.

Nonetheless, it was recognised that reimagining CPPs as integral to local democracy presents clear challenges: ‘How do we balance representative democracy and community-led decision making?’ It will be necessary to further develop the role of local elected representatives in CP, and work out transparent and accountable mechanisms to connect different decision making roles and structures.

The Forum insisted that CP must be ‘community focussed and enabling’, and that ‘service design and delivery must be driven by communities’. This means that ‘public bodies should share budgets based on what works for communities’. There was a recognition that ‘in some areas there is already a move towards sharing resources organically’, but also that ‘this doesn’t happen everywhere, and this is where legislation is important to force change where it’s becoming stuck’. Participants also highlighted that third sector organisations can lead by example by exploring new ways of sharing resources for the benefit of communities.

Therefore, the Forum reflected on the work that the third sector must do to play a prominent role in this new CP. Participants were self-critical about the need for TSIs’ development in order to be both: participative (capable of engaging the diversity of voices within the third sector) and influential (capable of representing the third sector on the basis of that participation). They clearly recognised that for TSIs to play a more legitimate role in CP, they must get a clearer mandate from their sector –and this would require TSIs to also become spaces for participation for 22 the sector. This does not mean that the TSIs are a substitute for effective community participation, which must collectively characterise the new approach to CP proposed.

 All in all, implementing this Vision would entail substantial reform of CP, local government and public services. This represents an ambitious agenda that deserves considered deliberation. There are numerous financial and administrative implications to this direction of travel, but inaction will also have its costs. The Forum thus called for radical reform, but following a cautious approach: ‘All of these actions should be proportionate, and bureaucracy should not block the flow of action’.

 Arguably, this level of ambition is well justified if CP is to play a central role in developing better policies and services, tackling inequalities and solving local problems. This Vision offers a way of rethinking CPPs that goes beyond managerial approaches to public services, and seeks to put forward the notion of ‘Democratic Community Planning’. The Forum delegates hope that these initial ideas can stimulate debate about what CP may achieve by becoming a catalyser for a more vibrant local democracy.

The next two EU Funds Masterclasses presented by Leslie Huckfield are being held  on behalf of Senscot, Social Firms Scotland, Development Trusts Association Scotland and Scottish Community Alliance:

•             1030 till 1300 on Wednesday 12 August 2015 at the Spectrum Centre, 1 Margaret St, Inverness. Use this link here to make your booking for the Inverness EU Funds Masterclass

•             1030 till 1300 on Friday 21 August 2015 at the Melting Pot, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh. Use this link here to make your booking for the Edinburgh EU Funds Masterclass

This week’s EU Funds Update features the ESF Programme’s 5 Social Inclusion Strategic Objectives, which for many readers will form the most accessible and relevant part of current EU Funding.  There is also a detailed summary of the four ERDF Strategic Packages which are most relevant to third sector organisations.

1)   STRATEGIC INTERVENTION LEADS

Scotland’s EU Structural Fund Programmes for 2014-2020 (ERDF and ESF) will be delivered through 14 different Strategic Intervention Lead Partners, each of which is issuing a detailed description of the focus on which their delivery of funds will be targeted, managed and co-financed.

As emphasised in previous EU Funds Updates, unless future applications fit within the descriptions of these Strategic Interventions, they are unlikely to be successful. Previous EU Funds Updates have provided latest information about these Strategic Interventions.

This EU Funds Update focuses especially on latest developments in the 5 Social Inclusion Strategic Objectives – probably the most important part of all these Programmes for Bulletin readers.

For further details about Strategic Leads and local delivery information the Scottish Government has published this list of contacts for Strategic Lead Partner Organisations, including Local Councils.

Please note that many of these may not yet be in a position to provide potential applicants with further information at this stage.

2) FIVE ESF STRATEGIC LEADS – PROMOTING SOCIAL INCLUSION, COMBATING POVERTY AND ANY DISCRIMINATION

This week, this Section includes important new information. Most titles highlighted in blue are links. Please click on these links for further information.

This “Thematic Objective” – with €89mn ESF – includes five Strategic Objectives set out below

Strategic Objective 21 – Financial Inclusion Programme, delivered through Big Lottery. Please click on the link for further details, including the bidding timetable in the five selected areas of Argyll and Bute, Dundee, Glasgow, Inverclyde and North Ayrshire.

Strategic Objective 22 – Enhanced Employability Pipelines. This is being delivered through Local Authorities. Please click on the link for further details, which includes some latest details and contacts for some local authority developments. This is the presentation which Leslie Huckfield made at the initial meeting of theEmployability Social Enterprise Network in Glasgow on Wednesday 05 August 2015.

Strategic Objective 23 – Disadvantaged Communities to develop long term solutions to increase active inclusion and reduce poverty. Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are currently working out how this community based Strategic Objective will be delivered and information will be made available as soon as possible. Once the application process starts, they will be looking for evidence that community based organisations and anchors have credible plans and the capacity to deliver. £12mn is available for Central Scotland and £8mn for Highlands and Islands. This is 100% funding so applicants won’t have to find match funding.

Strategic Objective 24 – Increase the Sustainability and Capacity of the Social Economy to deliver support to the most disadvantaged areas and groups.  Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are currently consulting on delivery, for which Senscot and Social Firms Scotland attended an important consultation in Glasgow on Wednesday 15 July 2015. Please see link below for further information. As they emerge, further details will be available in future EU Funds Updates.

Strategic Objective 25 – Support and Encourage Social Innovation and Solutions. Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are currently consulting on delivery, for which Senscot and Social Firms Scotland attended an important consultation in Glasgow. Please see link below for further information. For Social Innovation – a new concept for ESF – there will be funding for three Stages. Stage One will be for smaller applications to test and try out new approaches’. Stage Two will be for growing these. Stage Three will look for sustainability after this funding and an exit  strategy. 

There is new important information on these two Strategic Objectives 24 and 25 from Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The Strategic Intervention proposal (draft and not yet approved by the managing Authority) is being jointly developed by the Scottish Government Third Sector Unit and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and covers the whole of Scotland.

As usual, this information comes with the usual health warning that things may change in future.

Youth Employment Initiative. This is a separate ESF initiative with €46.30mn matched by an amount from mainstream ESF, for NEETS aged 16 to 29. YEI is administered through Scottish Funding Council and 12 local authorities to focus on employer recruitment. Please follow the link for further details.

National Third Sector Employability Programme. To be delivered through Skills Development Scotland, this €14mn ESF Programmes is for 3 years and will invite 3 year proposals.  Details are still awaited. Applications will need details of match funding.

3) FOUR ERDF STRATEGIC INTERVENTION LEADS

The following are ERDF Strategic Intervention Leads of interest to Bulletin readers. A similar posting about these Strategic Intervention Leads has appeared in previous EU Funds Updates.

Green Infrastructure – a total package of approximately £37.5mn be delivered by Scottish Natural Heritage. Please follow the title link for Interim SNH Guidance.

Low Carbon Travel and Transport  – ERDF to be delivered by Transport Scotland. Please follow the title link for Interim Note from Transport Scotland, which has £25mn ERDF for delivery of £62.5mn total project costs.

Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme – ERDF to be delivered by Zero Waste Scotland. Please follow the link for Interim Note from Zero Waste Scotland. 

Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme  – ERDF being delivered by Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Eligibility includes “Community groups, Registered Charities, Third Sector, Community Benefit Societies and Community Interest Companies”. This is the Initial Contact Form to be used for access to this Strategic Intervention. This presentation offers a good overview of the Low Carbon Strategic Intervention.

As more details of these become available, further information and guidance from other Strategic Leads will be posted in EU Funds Updates.

4) SCOTTISH RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (SRDP)

The SRDP will be delivered through a number of schemes, not all of which are directly farming related. This link provides details of Schemes of more interest to members.  A similar posting about these Schemes has appeared in previous EU Funds Updates.

5) DRAFT EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

To help potential applicants, Leslie Huckfield has designed a Draft Expression of Interest form, which includes issues potential applicants need to consider before the official bidding processes start.

If you would like to “try out” your ideas, please complete this form and send to Les at les@huckfield.com

Finally, thank you for your patience in reading through this. If any links in this EU Funds Update don’t work, please e mail les@huckfield.com for a direct link or file copy.