Land Matters – The blog and website of Andy Wightman

On 7 June  2014, the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse MSP, addressed the Annual Conference of Community Land Scotland at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye. In the most significant speech on land reform since Donald Dewar’s McEwen Lecture in 1998, he provided the Scottish Government’s first substantial reaction to the report of the Land Reform Review Group which was published on 23 May 2014. The text of his speech is reproduced here. 

Author: Point People

 From climate change to poverty to healthcare, the large, complex social, environmental and economic problems we face today are too big for any one organisation to tackle alone. They require us to work together in new ways to address the root causes of problems and to create new outcomes that can change entire systems.

The failure of many of the systems that underpin modern life is increasingly difficult to avoid, so it’s not surprising that interest in ‘systems innovation’ is growing fast. At the Point People, we’ve seen pioneers emerging in this field from different sectors, leading very different kinds of organisations and speaking very different professional languages.

We had a hunch that these frontrunners could tell a compelling story about what systemic innovation looks and feels like in practice. So we put them in front of a camera and asked them a handful of questions.

This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of Green Templeton College, the University of Oxford

The system compass

Systems Changers

Although we spoke with people from very different backgrounds, common insights emerged that crossed these professional boundaries. These fall into six themes:

First – the craft of collaboration is vital to systemic change. This is easy to say, much harder to do in practice. The interviews highlight key ways in which deep collaboration can occur, as well as some of the significant barriers to achieving true partnership.

Second – narrative is crucial. Narratives help people understand how the systems they live in are socially constructed. They help us become aware of how we prop up failing systems, and how we can build new ones.

Third – theory and practice need to be understood as a double helix, inextricably linked. Our interviewees used different language to make this point – from appreciative enquiry to agile development – but behind this lies a shared, deeply held commitment to learning and iteration.

Fourth – systems change involves liminal spaces. Innovators need to be able to move in and out of the systems they are trying to change. Even when they are outside of the status quo, they are able to maintain a dialogue with it. If designed well, these liminal spaces can hold unstable groups of people together in the collective pursuit of change.

Fifth – systems change looks more like a movement than like change led from either ‘top down’ or ‘bottom up’. Successful systems changers need to understand how to orchestrate multiple points of intervention, and align diverse interests with a common goal.

Sixth – systemic leaders are unafraid of the unknown – in fact, they embrace uncertainty. They are able to identify points of intervention and act in the face of complexity. They combine a desire to understand systems with a realisation that they will always have to take action without perfect knowledge.

Just as there were important points of agreement, the interviews also highlighted important tensions and questions:

•             Is it is possible to design for systems change at all?

•             Is systems change revolutionary or an evolution? .

•             Is systems change an elitist discourse that excludes more than it enables?

•             Do organisations and institutions play a key role in achieving systems change; or are they obstacles, part of the old system that gets in the way?

Author: Tom Gordon, Political Correspondent, The Herald, 25th May 2014

A BID to stop an independent Scotland being carved up by politicians, cronies, lobbyists and big business has been launched by a group of activists, academics and writers.

The National Council for Scotland project aims to ensure that the widest range of public opinion is reflected in negotiations with the rest of the UK (rUK) in the event of a Yes vote.

Instead of “a new Scotland based on the cynicism of the old Britain”, with the great and good of politics and commerce pursuing their own agendas, organisers want the whole of Scotland to have a say in redesigning the country.

Areas for debate after a Yes vote would include currency options, sharing the UK national debt, sharing UK assets, and whether Scotland should be part of UK energy and banking regimes.

Among those supporting today’s launch of the website nationalcouncilscotland.org are authors Alan Bissett and James Robertson, below, broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, actor David Hayman, Electoral Reform Society director Willie Sullivan, and academic Dr Oliver Escobar.

The plan is partly a response to renewed unhappiness among Yes campaigners about “SNP control-freakery” ahead of the referendum.

Alex Salmond recently announced he had already started assembling a cross-party “Team Scotland” of politicians and experts to negotiate the terms of independence with rUK.

However, the National Council for Scotland group says there has not yet been enough public debate on the choices an independent Scotland would face to give any party a negotiating mandate.

In its launch document it says: “An appointment system in which unmandated politicians select unmandated individuals to carry out these negotiations as they see fit is clearly not acceptable.

“The assumption that ‘the nation’ has no role but to await news of what is ‘carved up’ on its behalf would be a deepening of precisely the kind of failed politics which has done so much damage to public trust.

“A process in which business figures and senior politicians negotiate a settlement which the public see as clearly in the interests of corporations and against the interests of the public would result in a new Scotland being born in mistrust and division.”

The very term “Team Scotland” smacks of “in-built elitism” based on wealth and personal connections, it adds.

Instead of “the usual suspects” in charge, the proposal is for a participative National Council, funded by the Government or parliament, which would debate key issues on independence through real and virtual town hall debates, citizens’ juries and public hearings.

This would allow individuals and organisations, big and small, to participate and frustrate the lobbyists who would inevitably try to influence a small Team Scotland-style group.

The National Council would produce an agenda for the second phase of the process – a Citizens’ Assembly representing a cross-section of Scotland, who would produce firm mandated proposals for the Government’s negotiators. Organisers estimate the National Council could last four months and the Citizens’ Assembly a further two months.

Although this would cover one third of the 18-month negotiating timetable set out by the SNP, the National Council group believes there would be few meaningful decisions taken before the General Election in May 2015, allowing ample time for citizens to become involved.

The group concedes that the Assembly’s mandate could not bind the SNP Government in negotiations, but says ministers would face a voter backlash if they ignored its recommendations. The group argues that such a “leap forward in democratic decision-making” could also be applied to the work of Holyrood in the event of a No vote.

Robin McAlpine, director of the left-wing Jimmy Reid Foundation, which is promoting the concept, said: “Everyone is sick and tired of bunker politics. Nobody believes that professional politicians and the wealthy people they appoint to committees are the only people capable of running our country.

“This is the moment for Scotland’s political class to realise that everything has changed.

“It would send an enormously important message about how Scotland can be if all parties made a clear commitment to open up politics and let citizens shape their own future.”

Escobar, of Edinburgh University’s Academy of Government, said: “Politics must mean more than party politics, and democracy must go beyond electoral democracy.

“I support this proposal because I believe we should reclaim politics and democracy as everybody’s business.”

Riddoch said: “Business as usual after the indyref is now unthinkable – whichever way the vote goes.”

A spokesman for the First Minister said the Government welcomed all contributions to the debate,

He added: “A Yes vote offers a break from the tired, discredited, undemocratic Westminster system and the machine politics that go with it.

“We want to be as inclusive as possible following a Yes vote, involving civic Scotland and those beyond the party political world [on] things like a written constitution.”

There’s a petition to show your support. 

Author: Malcolm Fraser

The built environment provides the places and spaces in which we are more-or-less happy, more-or-less creative and more-or-less economically-effective. A proper measure of the “more”, rather than the “less”, is the amount of amenity, or utility, a built environment offers us: the nearby parks, schools and shops, it’s connectivity via a nice, easy route to work or by good access to its public buildings, how it allows and encourages the ways we creatively interact with each other from park bench to great places of public assembly, and how all relate to nature and sunshine.

How we achieve such a simple, focused vision, intersects with the general aims of the Common Weal, for a fairer, more open society:

Democracy and the Common Weal : whatever our digital future the delivery of services, from public to private or commercial (Town Hall and libraries to ordinary offices and shops) will always have a physical component for we are social animals and work and play best when we come together. In planning our built environment we must not forget that not all have access to a car.

First and foremost, we need to regain confidence in the idea of public services, and the fairness and efficiency of how the open, democratic state can deliver them. Thereafter, a democratic right for all to have easy access to the physical manifestations of these services, as well as to complimentary commercial ones, would see them fortified in their existing, town centre locations under the Town Centre first principle, where public transport goes, rather than dispersed out-of-town, where the car owner gets stuck in traffic.

Alongside this, the Common Weal’s proposals for reinvigorating democracy would see the revival of the missing, local level, of parish, community or whatever councils that would care for their immediate communities, providing a balance to larger authorities which might be reorganised around the 14 Health Board areas. Alongside this is land reform, with the rights of communities to access and own land and buildings in common, underpinned by a Land Registry that makes all ownership clear.

The Built Environment as Precious Resource : the urgency of resource-depletion and man-made climate change must make an end to cycles of demolition and new build, and abandoning old towns for new. The Town Centre first policy helps re-nucleate our atomised built environment, drawing it together so we can walk in it, or access it by public transport.

And just as we need to renew, not abandon, our old towns, building joyful new buildings alongside their old ones, so we need to joyfully-renew old buildings, finding appropriate uses for them rather than condemning their often sturdy fabric to landfill sites. To do this we also need to level our absurd VAT regime, that taxes renewal at 20% and rewards demolition and newbuild with a zero or 5% rate. Such a policy, with a flat rate of 5%, has been shown to promote regeneration, increase the supply of homes by encouraging empty homes back into use at the hearts of their communities, reduce the black economy and increase employment – repair being more labour, and less resource, intensive. A wee magic bullet for society.

A Utilitarian Planning System : delivering all this would be a radically-revised Planning System, which would answer the question “why does society build?” by putting utility at its heart : hospitals that use light, fresh air and access to nature to promote healing, homes and communities built round sunshine and shared space, offices focussed on creative working environments and schools on light, playspace and their location in their communities, for instance; and villages, towns and cities focussed on parks, walking and shared space.

Author: Norman MacAskill

You are invited to help shape the programme for the Scottish Rural Parliament due to be held in Oban in November 2014.  The organisers would be very grateful if you could complete this VERY short survey monkey

Norman MacAskill of SCVO, reports on a visit to the recent Swedish Rural Parliament.

Scotland will have its first Rural Parliament this November in Oban, but our friends in rural Sweden have a 26 year long track record in running these events. On May 16th to 18th, I was privileged to be one of a small group from Scotland joining 750 delegates attending the 13th Swedish Rural Parliament in Sandviken, 100 miles north of Stockholm. It is organised by local groups working with Hela Sverige ska leva! – which translates as All Sweden Shall Live! – the impressively organised Swedish village action movement.

I travelled with John Hutchison and Emma Cooper, the Chair and Co-ordinator respectively of Scottish Rural Action, the organisation responsible for the Scottish Rural Parliament.

Even before the event began on Friday, the stadium venue was a cheerful mix of conference, reunion and carnival, with animated conversations and greetings among the delegates, volunteers dressed in colourful traditional costumes, and dancers and jugglers performing ad hoc in the large exhibition area.

As the session opened, a group of folk dancers made their way through the crowd, ending up on the stage where they whirled around a bit more to tunes from a lone fiddler before being joined by a pair of rappers. The result was a glorious cultural mash-up with the fiddler weaving tunes around the beats, the folk dancers throwing shapes and the rapping dudes declaiming with gusto – perhaps about rural development issues, who knows?

Those acts, followed later by a theatre group, a circus artist and a bluegrass band set the tone for the rest of the day, blending serious presentations on weighty issues with lively local culture and a welcome leavening of downright silliness.

As Staffan Nilsson of All Sweden Shall Live said in his welcoming remarks, “We need to work hard and efficiently – but also have fun!”

A warm and thoughtful welcome from Governor Barbro Holberg of Gavleborg County (which she described as “Sweden in miniature”) emphasised the need for partnership working and gave the example of a small village who had reacted to the closure of their fire service by setting up a local association to take it over and run it. Now, even the priest might be called from delivering mass if there was an emergency.

In Sweden, where citizens have traditionally paid high levels of tax and expected the state to provide for all their needs, this shift to service delivery by community-based organisations is revolutionary. While it is regarded with suspicion by many, it is clearly gathering pace, particularly in rural areas.

More examples of local success came in a lengthy presentation on The Best Village in the World, which brought together projects and initiatives from different places into one ideal village, charmingly illustrated in cartoon form. The booklet accompanying this initiative is available here, and is a really inspiring piece of work.

The Great Rural Prize, sponsored by Land magazine, was awarded to a 19 year old entrepreneur who has pioneered a joint production kitchen where local food producers can rent space and equipment to process their products, so they don’t have to spend money on premises of their own. The winner – striking a starkly familiar note – said that some of his award money would be donated to the local food bank.

Later, Scotland’s Vanessa Halhead spoke about the European Village Movement, and delegates were shown short videos about rural policy prepared by the Swedish political parties in advance of the European elections.

Bigton Community Newsletter

In September 2012 Annie Pollock, Director of Landscape Design and Architecture at the University of Stirling was visiting Shetland and was informed that we were trying to create a dementia friendly shop at Bigton and had begun by delivering training to the staff. Annie visited with Alan Murdoch, and took photographs, audited the premises and made suggestions as to how we could progress this aim.

This is why we now have:

• Safety flooring that is a similar colour to outside.

• The door mat looks like a mat and is a similar colour to the floor covering

• Signage to indicate what is grouped with a picture or graphic e.g tea, pasta ,jam

Dementia is an umbrella term for a number of conditions which affects the brain. Short term memory loss, disorientation and loss of concentration are common symptoms. It is important that we try and dispel the stigma of dementia and support our family, friends and neighbours with a diagnosis of dementia to maintain their community connections.

Look out for the handrails being painted and the step nosings to the shop being made clearer.  

Food aid organisations are now able to apply for funding through the £500,000 Emergency Food Fund (EFF).

The Scottish Government fund is part of a £1 million investment in food aid, with £500,000 already committed to charity FareShare which redistributes surplus food from retailers to charities supporting their local communities.

According to the Trussell Trust, the number of people who used food banks in Scotland between 1st April 2013 and 31st March 2014 rose to 71,428 compared to 14,332 people in the same period of 2012 to 2013.

EFF will support projects which respond to immediate demands for emergency food aid and help to address the underlying causes of food poverty.

Applications are invited for larger grants, up to four of which will be awarded at between £30,000 and £50,000 each. Smaller grants of up to £10,000 each will also be awarded, with £1000 being the minimum value for any individual grant.

Grants will be given to projects that concentrate on preventing food crisis recurring, those that build connections between food aid providers, advice and support agencies and organisations working to promote healthy eating and reduce food waste.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said:

“The amount of people experiencing food poverty in Scotland is simply not acceptable. Welfare reform, benefit delays, benefit sanctions and falling incomes are all having a detrimental impact on the people of Scotland.

“The Scottish Government’s Emergency Food Fund will help food aid organisations combat food poverty in Scotland by working in partnership with other local agencies. I urge relevant organisations to apply.

“One of the most depressing trends over the last few years has been the rapid rise of food poverty in our country.

“The only upside to this is seeing communities come together, gathering and distributing food for those in need. It is important that we support these people and organisations through initiatives such as the Emergency Food Fund.

“Most people recognise that the increase in foodbank use is directly linked to welfare reform and benefit cuts. Only an independent Scotland will have the full powers we need to protect people from poverty and help them fulfill their potential in work and life.”

Groups and communities across the country will be invited to sign up to Scotland’s Climate Change Pledge for Communities to express their support and commitment to taking local action on climate change.

This Pledge links grass-roots, community activities into the bigger picture – contributing towards Scotland’s ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gasses and developing our collective resilience for the future.

The Pledge was announced by Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse MSP at The 2014 Climate Challenge Fund Gathering. The first community group to sign a pledge was by Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust.

They were congratulated on signing the pledge by Scottish Environment and Climate Change minister Paul Wheelhouse.

He said: “I commend the pledge, not as symbolism but because of the commitment that underpins it and as a catalyst for further action against the impacts of climate change.

Keep Scotland Beautiful is very proud to manage and develop the both the Climate Challenge Fund and Climate Change Pledge for Communities on behalf of the Scottish Government and looks forward to helping many more community groups make positive connections to take action on climate change.  

Who has been invited to sign the Pledge for Communities?

The invitation has initially been extended to the 66 CCF funded groups who have attended one of the seven Climate Change workshops run by CASP over the past six months. The majority of the groups who have attended this course agree that the content of the workshop was needed to help them communicate climate change to the rest of their communities. They are enthusiastic about taking the pledge back to their organisation and generating more interest and action.

I want to sign Scotland’s Climate Change Pledge for Communities too – what do I do?

1. You should feel confident in your ability to communicate the climate change message to a broader audience. If you feel you would like to improve your ability to communicate climate change within your community, you should sign up for one of the Climate Change workshops.

The next Climate Change workshop will be running on Thursday 29 May at the Keep Scotland Beautiful offices in Stirling. You can read more about it here. This workshop is for currently funded CCF projects only, but other dates will be announced soon. We recommend that two people from each organisation attend the workshop if possible. This means that it is not all on one person’s shoulders.

2. The Pledge is for organisations, not individuals. It will have to be agreed by your governing body and signed by an office bearer from your management committee or board. Although we are starting with the groups funded by CCF, it is open to any grass roots organisation who is serious about taking action on climate change.

3. Please let us know that your organisation would like to sign the Climate Change Pledge for Communities. Please get in touch with Kate Airlie at Keep Scotland Beautiful (kate.airlie@keepscotlandbeautiful.org)  We will send you a hard copy of the Pledge, personalised with your organisation’s name.

4. Finally, once your governing body has agreed and signed, send (post/fax or email) us a copy. We will be developing a map of Pledge Communities for the CCF website. We would be very interested to hear about any impacts that the Pledge has had in your project or your community so we will being staying in touch with you.

Author: David Ross, Highland correspondent, The Herald

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) should no longer be directly involved in trying to grow Canna’s population despite owning the island, a new report warns.

The conservation charity, which has invested £10 million in the Inner Hebridean island over the past decade, has been “bruised” by local community acrimony, the internal review says.

Four families have settled on Canna only to uproot themselves, pointing the finger publicly at the NTS’s management.

The population had dropped to 11 but with the arrival of two families has now gone back up to 18.

The document says that for a stable community to be sustained, there should be no fewer than 30 people with a normal age spread.

It adds the NTS can claim success in the recovery of the seabird population and the restoration of Canna House’s garden.

However, it is set to keep out of future attempts to attract new residents with the report recommending a new forum between the NTS and the islanders on the Canna Community Development Trust (CCDT). It says: “This will specifically exclude the Trust from ‘engineering’ a community development strategy given previous events.

“The residents themselves will take primary responsibility for their own future development and any expansion of the community.”

The report says the NTS “has stuttered through several failed attempts to grow the population and achieve a stable social mix of residents, and been forced to deal with the resulting fall-out.”

It finds there was a “natural tension” because the Trust was both landlord and employer “and the sometimes hard decisions the Trust had to make as the latter”.

But it also identifies one of the causes of dissent and bitterness had been perceived “favouritism for the ‘native’ residents, whereas incomers have received short-term contracts of employment and/or limited tenures or leases”.

It describes the relationship with community as the “Achilles heel”.

Dr John Lorne Campbell had bought Canna in 1938 and he and his wife, Margaret Fay Shaw, moved into Canna House and remained until their deaths. They built up a unique collection of papers, audio recordings and publications which preserved what was then a disappearing Gaelic language and tradition. The island was donated to the NTS in 1981.

The report recommends the NTS consider the creation of new crofts, returning decrofted sites to crofting, or creating smallholdings, “with the purpose of strengthening the island community and supporting incoming families”.

The vacant post of the resident Property Manager should be discontinued. There should also be review the role of the Canna House archivist, as the present incumbent is due to retire.

The NTS has resolved to develop a comprehensive conservation plan for the house and its unique collection of Gaelic archives.

Geraldine MacKinnon, whose family have been on Canna since the 18th century, chairs the CCDT. She said: “It is quite a good document. I don’t think there is anything that we can’t work round and there is enough in it to provide a basis for working on future development.”

Patrick Duffy, the NTS Director of Property and Visitor Services said the review has helped it learn lessons and set out “the potential for a future course based on co-operation”.

The Story of Scotland’s Poverty Truth Commission

The beginning (March 2009)

The Poverty Truth Commission was formed in March 2009 after a group of people from disadvantaged communities in Glasgow testified on poverty in front of 400 people. That day, a group of Scotland’s decision makers decided to join with the testifiers, accepting that they could not address poverty without those affected.

Scotland’s first Poverty Truth Commission (2009-2011)

The Commission brought together two groups of people: some of Scotland’s poorest citizens and some of Scotland’s most influential and strategic thinkers.

They came together out of a very special event held in Glasgow City Chambers in 2009 at which people in poverty spoke and others listened. At the end of the day, some ofthose who had listened (and been profoundly moved) agreed to commit themselves to anongoing process of coming together to listen, learn and work together.

This phase of the Commission focused on three main areas of particular relevance to the Commissioners: care for children unable to live with their parents; overcoming violence in our communities; and addressing the stereotyping of people living in poverty.

In April 2011 the Poverty Truth Commission presented its findings.

The Legacy Stage (2011-2012)

Although the Commission planned to conclude at its formal meeting in April 2011, all members of the Commission felt they had created a special participatory model and had a very important message to spread. The Commission has spent 12 months in an important “legacy stage” in which it sought to work with agencies committed to taking the work forward.

2011-2014

As a result of the connections made and interest in the Poverty Truth Commission, the original members of the Commission decided there was work still to be done – albeit with a different focus and direction. The group decided The Poverty Truth Commission would focus on 3 areas of work over a 3 year period:

1.            Supporting up to 15 people living in poverty to have the confidence to speak and up to 12 others to have the confidence to listen

2.            Supporting up to 5 organisations who would like to work in similar ways to the Poverty Truth Commission

3.            Using social media to get people’s stories and voices to a wider audience

This phase of the Commission is now drawing to a close and the findings will be presented at a special event, “Turning Up the Volume on Poverty” on the 21st of June, at Glasgow’s Woodside Hall.

The Future

A new set of Commissioners will take forward to the work of the Poverty Truth Commission. These Commissioners will meet together for the first time on the 21st of June 2014. We are in the final planning stages and will release names of the new Commission on the “Commissioners” webpage in the coming weeks.