Author: SCOTO

Tourism network launches nationwide roadshow

Scotland’s community tourism network is launching a nationwide roadshow in a bid to support existing community tourism providers and encourage more communities to take a lead in providing grassroots owned tourism facilities and services. 

SCOTO, which launched last year and now has over 100 members across Scotland, is hosting a series of roadshows across the country in a bid to raise awareness of the extent of community tourism across Scotland, promote networking and inspire  more community led tourism enterprises. Its membership includes museums, outdoor experiences, information centres, glamping pods, cafes, trails and numerous other tourism attractions and services owned and operated by local communities.

SCOTO was launched in a bid to promote community owned tourism enterprises. Its membership has grown rapidly and the body is keen to engage communities that are delivering tourism products and others that may have an interest in developing local tourism facilities.

The roadshow is open to existing SCOTO members, social enterprises and community organisations delivering community tourism, local tourism groups and community groups aspiring to set up a tourism offer. 

As well as networking opportunities, the roadshow will offer practical support to local community groups looking to set up a community owned tourism enterprise. 

The roadshows run from January to March and will take in 25 locations across Scotland, starting with the Highlands, Moray, Speyside and Aberdeen-shire from 23 January. A series of virtual events are also planned.

Carrol Tobin, a director and founding member of SCOTO, said: “We are looking forward to engaging with potential new members across Scotland. The SCOTO network is diverse and continues to expand as more and more community run tourism enterprises see the advantage of working together. We would encourage anyone who is passionate about supporting local tourism to join our roadshow and meet others in the sector who are working hard to promote community owned tourism.”

She added: “At this time of year, many people are thinking about booking short breaks. We want more people to think about touring Scotland and enjoying the many wonderful attractions we have that are owned and run by local communities. Every pound spent in a local tourism facility is a pound that benefits that local community, and everything that’s spent is reinvested back into the local community, ensuring that some of our remote and rural facilities remain sustainable for the long term. These amazing places also give visitors the chance to experience being a ‘temporary local’ and get to the heart of individual communities across Scotland.”

The roadshow is supported through Inspiring Scotland by the Scottish Government Rural and Island Communities Idea into Action Fund and leads up to a two day conference and learning exchange at the Duke of Gordon Hotel in Kingussie from 2-3 March.

The full schedule is as follows:

• North East (Highland, Moray, Aberdeen-shire) w/c 23 January
• South West (Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, Dumfries & Galloway and Lanarkshire) w/c 30 January
• Central and East (Forth Valley, Lomond, Fife, Rural Perth, and Angus) w/c 6 February
• South East (Borders, Tyne & Esk, West Lothian and Kelvin Valley) w/c 13 February
• North & West (Highlands and Argyll) w/c 20 February
• Islands (Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides) w/c 6 March

To book a place on the roadshow, visit www.scoto.co.uk/b2b

Author: Aero Space Kinross

See the details of the Community Bond Offer 

We are striving to create a permanent venue for Aero Space Kinross (ASK). Our goal is to purchase, renovate, repurpose and refit the former MOD/NATO Satellite Communications Station at Balado Bridge Kinross into an aerospace discovery centre that will…

• Engage and inspire young people through play-based STEAM related educational activities.
• Provide STEAM graduates with improved career prospects through working in the centre.
• Create c 25 full time jobs at the centre and help sustain the wider local economy.
• Attract 50,000 general public visitors pa.
• Provide a STEAM educational resource for c.10,000 annual school pupil visits.
• Preserve and present local aviation heritage.
• Captivate and inspire visitors of all ages and abilities.
• Foster an inclusive and accessible environment to ensure all visitors can enjoy the centre regardless of background.
• Showcase leading edge developments in the Scottish aerospace sector.
• Display art and cultural exhibitions and the work of aviation related charities.
• Engage volunteers in contributing to the visitor experience.

ASK will be a uniquely themed aerospace discovery centre in the heart of Scotland…an interactive, fun, educational and inspirational experience that will touch individuals from every generation and will attract people from all over the UK and beyond, to this must-see visitor destination.

From the story of man’s mastery and physics of flight to astronomy and all aspects of space exploration, the centre will open hearts and engage minds through awesome flight motion simulation, outstanding exhibits, a fully immersive 3D planetarium, expert presentations on the world of flight, meteorology and space exploration, and much more!

Located just off the M90 near Kinross, one hour’s drive from half of Scotland’s population, this centre for excellence will be accessible to all and offers every child, family and enthusiast an unrivalled personal development opportunity, one that provides hope and inspiration for generations to come.

Read details of the Community Bond Offer

Author: Severin Carrell

“It’s very exciting,” said Colin Grant, a fifth-generation farmer in Glengarry near Fort William. Grant has seen his community dwindle over the decades but now the village is at the centre of a novel experiment that could help repopulate the Highlands.

Local people in Glengarry are creating woodland crofts in nearby forests – affordable family homes designed for craftspeople, carpenters and small-scale farmers, using a shared ownership model designed to combat the soaring costs of scarce rural homes.

Glengarry’s experiment is being watched closely by rural housing and land reform campaigners across Scotland, as well as Scottish government ministers, curious about whether this model could help solve rural Scotland’s housing crisis.

There has been a recent surge of interest in woodland crofts, caused by the Covid crisis, Brexit, and a growing desire for low-carbon living, said Jamie McIntyre, who co-founded the Woodland Crofts Partnership, an advocacy and advice campaign.

“The Covid pandemic caused a lot of people to reassess and look for a different lifestyle and we see that in the rural housing market as well,” McIntyre said. People now realise they can work remotely. “On an individual level, living and working on a woodland croft is low carbon living par excellence, ideally in a timber-built house, heated with fuel and eating food grown on land around you.”

“It’s very exciting, this project, because there has been a need for affordable housing for quite a few decades,” Grant said. “There’s a positive feel about it amongst a vast majority of the community. It’s seen as strengthening the community.”

Over the decades, he said, Forestry Commission workers moved out, as did the hydro engineers. The village shop closed 30 years ago. In a trend repeated across rural Britain, cottages were bought up for second homes and holiday lets, driving up prices; around a quarter of local homes are frequently dark and empty outside the holiday seasons.

“Jobs have just vanished and while tourism has grown, it’s not enough. There’s a need for more job opportunities.”

So Grant and his neighbours, about 100 of them, set up a community-run company called Glengarry Community Woodland which now owns 78ha (193 acres) of forest and open land, backed by £193,000 from the Scottish Land Fund, a government body that part-finances community buyouts.

In collaboration with the Community Housing Trust, an affordable housing charity that bought 19ha immediately beside Glengarry’s largest 47ha plot, they plan to build four affordable homes and create six woodland crofts, offering those as a mixture of tenancies and self-build projects looking south over Loch Garry.

It will be partly financed by income from six new off-grid forest cabins for holiday lets the community group is building, with larch from their forest, after raising just under £250,000 from crowd-sourced equity funding in December, to cash in on the growth of eco-tourism.

Tom Cooper, Glengarry Community Woodland’s development manager, said these homes would mix the strict rules of crofting tenure where crofters, registered by the Crofting Commission, have to actively work and live on their land, and the principles of shared equity. The community trust will part own the land.

Colin Grant, a fifth generation farmer in Glengarry, near Fort William. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

“We’re expecting crofters to be able to manage the woodland, and will have to demonstrate that when they apply for the croft,” he said. “They’re not just going to be open to everyone.

“Very few crofters want to make their sole income from the croft. You might work part-time in tourism, which is a very seasonal industry here. You might work at weekends on the croft, to bring in additional income.”

There have been numerous privately owned woodland crofts dotted around Scotland, and the first community-owned scheme began in north-west Mull in 2012.

McIntyre has recently tracked projects springing up across the Highlands and islands, including on Skye, at Kilfinan in Argyll and Tiroran on south-west Mull. Near Ullapool, Loch Broom Community Renewables, which already runs a 100kw hydro power station, is buying 94ha of surrounding forest for woodland crofting. It feels like a tipping point, he said.

The Crofting Federation, a campaigning group, wants 10,000 new crofts built in Scotland: half should be woodland crofts, it believes. McIntyre has lobbied Forestry and Land Scotland, the state-owned forestry agency, to allow crofts on its land. “You should do woodland crofts on the national forest estate: that would be a really important natural next step,” he said.

Ronnie MacRae, the Community Housing Trust’s chief executive, said Glengarry’s model could provide proof that collaborative, mixed-tenure crofting works. It met several needs: affordable rural housing, net zero living and sustaining rural economies. “We know that there’s demand and I think that’s growing,” he said. “There’s a big appetite from most small rural communities to get more housing choices.”

Grant said Glengarry hoped to become a pioneer. “The thing which is exciting us, if it goes well, it could be a model for others to follow. That’s what we really like about it. Its reputation and a proven track record could go a long way.”

Author: Planning Democracy

As reported by the Falkirk Herald, Falkirk’s Community Councils are struggling to reform after the recent elections, leaving less than a quarter of the town’s most local tier of governance still in existence. Even long term Community Council stalwarts who have been keeping many going have had enough. 

Early in the new year Planning Democracy held a meeting to investigate the cause of this mass departure from Local Democracy, with several former and current Community Councillors from the Falkirk area citing a litany of longstanding complaints about their treatment by Falkirk Council as the main justification for stepping away from their civic duties. 

Many highlighted the planning system which they feel is so one sided in favour of developers, that they saw themselves as being no more than bystanders. Of chief concern was the amount of poor quality housing being built, usually in the wrong place, with no thought for the local infrastructure & services, with prices that the majority in their community could not afford.

“We understand that we need new housing and that our villages will inevitably grow, but our local infrastructure and services are at breaking point and none of the housing is the kind we need, at a price most people can afford. 

Large Developments inevitably generate multi millions in profit for the developer but the local community is paid lip service to in the form of improving local and wider services. 

The Gilston Development in Polmont has been granted Planning in Principle for around 500 units, with the Developer contributing to improving local services, however we feel financially & practically that this is inadequate to support a development of this size.

In Larbert a new school was constructed due to the volume of new housing being built, however it has reached capacity very quickly and now even more development is happening, which is putting a real strain on already creaking services” 

said Michael Stuart of Polmont CC, who is one of the few Community Councils left in Falkirk. 

Added to these complaints was the lack of a Community Right of Appeal. Whereas developers have the right to challenge a planning refusal at no cost to them, communities who are affected by developments that are approved, have no such right of appeal. This is seen by many as a gross injustice, but efforts to bring in rights of appeal, which were supported by Falkirk Community Councils at the time, were thwarted during the last round of Planning Reforms in 2019. 

“We had so many Community Councils support a right of appeal and yet the Government did not listen to our calls for equality. Without this we have no affordable recourse to justice, even if planning applications go against the Local Development Plan or impact negatively on our environment or community. 

Following the approval of the controversial Persimmon Hillcrest/Tappernail development, I decided to step down. Even if adequate funding were provided, I have no desire to put effort into doing a Local Place Plan, because like everything else, it will be overridden in favour of developers and big business.” said Maria Montinaro formerly of Shieldhill and California Community Council

”I’m still here because no one else comes forward to be in the Community Council.  It’s not surprising, because we’re ignored, over-ridden and because of this we have low morale. It makes us look ineffective and we lose any credibility we might have had by not having any influence” Walter Inglis Grangemouth CC

Whereas previously, several Community Councils had come together to campaign jointly against the threat of fracking, this kind of effective networking was very resource consuming and not sustainable in the long term without appropriate funding. 

The lack of resources was also raised in connection with the expectation that communities will invest time and energy in the production of Local Place Plans. Whilst Scottish Government wants to introduce LPPs, there has been no indication that there will be any resources available to support this time consuming work.

Despite all the current negativity and pessimism about the role of community councils, there are some who continue to argue that in the absence of any alternative mechanism for representing  and acting on a community’s behalf, it would be irresponsible to walk away from the only viable option. 

Much of what is happening in Falkirk echoes what Planning Democracy found in a recent survey of 228 Community Councillors throughout Scotland which found that at the root of many of their challenges is a lack of meaningful opportunities to participate in the planning system and a lack of influence over what happens.

Many Community Councils feel they aren’t being listened to by Local Authority planning departments. Many said that the planning system could be better designed to allow for community participation and that there was a need for training and better advice on planning issues. 

Planning Democracy have also recently released a short film which highlights many of the concerns voiced recorded above.

“We have a fundamental crisis in local democracy, with communities feeling disempowered, particularly where planning issues are concerned” said Clare Symonds of Planning Democracy. “The Scottish Government has a manifesto commitment to forward a Local Democracy Bill which is an opportunity to resolve these issues, before we completely lose the most local form of community representation we have in Scotland”. 

Editors notes

The survey of community councillors can be found here. Community Council Survey on Planning Issues (planningdemocracy.org.uk) 

The Scottish Government commenced a Local Governance Review back in 2017, also known as Democracy Matters, which among other things explored  how power and resources could be better shared with communities. There was extensive consultation involving 4000 people, however progress was slowed during Covid and now the process seemingly has stalled. 

Author: Stir To Action

Despite explosive interest and investment into worker and community ownership – particularly through foundation and local government responses to economic renewal –  there’s still a significant shortfall of advisors in the sector.

Barefoot provides existing practitioners with specialist training to gain skills, knowledge, and confidence to work as advisors to co-operative and community businesses in the UK.

Are you ready to join a new generation of advisors who are committed to democracy in the workplace and local communities?

What is barefoot?

Barefoot provides practitioners with specialist training to gain skills, knowledge, and confidence to work as advisors in the co-operative and community business sectors. We’re looking for a new generation of practitioners who work in their own co-operative or community business and want to support others to start up or grow their own co-operative and community-led organisations.

You will leave with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to provide quality support to co-operatives and community businesses (building on your own prior experience in the sector), the tools and resources to use in your own practice as an advisor, and the opportunity to stay connected with your peers and barefoot alumni.

Who is barefoot for?

– Individuals with prior management experience within a co-operative or community business

– Individuals who want to develop a practice as an advisor within the sector and support other organisations to startup or scale

– Staff of infrastructure bodies or existing co-operative development bodies (as part of their ongoing professional development)

This programme is not designed to support people or groups who would like to set-up their own co-operative or community business. If you’re looking for support, advice, resources, and training in this area, see our other programmes, as well as support offered by Co-operatives UK, Locality, and the Plunkett Foundation.

How we assess applications

‍Assuming that you are based in the UK and meet the essential criteria, we will assess your application against the following:

1. Impact – how you will apply the learning
2. What sort of co-op(s) you are (have been) part of.
3. What sort of co-op development interests you.
4. What specialist skills and experience you might already have.

If you would like to discuss your application before submitting then please do contact the team on barefoot@stirtoaction.com.

Course Content

How is it delivered?

‍The Barefoot programme is delivered online through a series of interactive online workshops (three hours) on a fortnightly basis. The workshops are designed and delivered by a team of co-operative and community business advisors with more than 25 years of experience working in these sectors. You will be studying as part of a group, with opportunities to share knowledge, experience, and ideas through conversations, breakout sessions, and an online forum.

‍What do we cover?

• What is co-operative development? We explore the political, cultural, and economic landscape around co-operative and community business development. Who is delivering what support to whom and how is it resourced?
• What it means to become a co-operative and community business advisor: the different models of delivery, how advisors organise and get paid, assessing your skills, devising a personal development plan, and supporting your next steps
• Skills and strategies for successful working with new and existing co-operatives and community businesses.

Supporting learners to help clients:

• Define their Theory of Change
• ‍Choose the right governance model and legal structure for their organisation
• Define, refine, and communicate their business models
• Properly research and define products and services to create an effective marketing plan
• Develop financial models and key financial documents, such as profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow
• Create a financial strategy for different stages of business development
• Cover grant, loan, and shares-based finance and how to include them in financial projections
• Assess the financial health of their organisation and identify the key indicators of an organisation’s financial health
• Ensure that the organisation has a thriving internal culture consistent with their vision and values and manage organisational conflict constructively
• Write a fully developed business plan.

In addition to the core programme we will offer one free optional workshop. These workshops will also be open to the public:

• Introduction to co-operative and community business finance: An introduction to the topic and an essential option for those who are not already familiar with the basics of financial management of their organisation
• Sociocracy in co-operatives and community businesses: An introduction to a model of governance and decision-making that is becoming increasingly popular in the sector
• Community finance: An introduction to the popular and growing method of financing co-operatives and community businesses by offering investment to their host communities.

Course Fees

Barefoot is offered on a sliding scale. We are working with funders, which will allow us to reduce the cost to applicants and offer a limited number of subsidised places.

• £2000 solidarity price – this will allow us to offer even more subsidised places.
• £1000 standard price – minimum fee for staff from infrastructure bodies or existing co-operative development bodies.
• a limited number of subsidised places at £500, £100, and fully funded are available for those who meet the eligibility criteria.

Eligibility for subsidised places

We are particularly in interested in applications from people from less represented communities and organisations actively working to improve diversity and inclusion in the co-operative and community business sector.

Apply Now

You can apply anytime to join this course –

we’ll assess your application and put you on

the next available cohort.

Questions? Want to find out more before you apply?

Contact barefoot@stirtoaction.com

Author: Scotland The Bread

– The first ever Scottish Real Bread Festival –

– Bowhouse –

– Saturday February 25th 2023 –

SAVE THE DATE – FULL LINE UP COMING SOON

Come to Bowhouse for a brand new festival celebrating all things Real Bread, packed with workshops, talks, hands-on activity and the results of the 2023 Scottish Bread Championship.

The Festival rounds off Real Bread Week (18th to 26th February) with an exciting programme including:

• The premiere of a short film celebrating the new wave of agroecological Scottish grain, flour & bread
• The awards ceremony of the newly relocated Scottish Bread Championship (full details and entry form here)
• A keynote speech and panel discussion from the Coordinator of The Real Bread Campaign
• Straw weaving workshop
• A Taste of Diversity: A chance to try different grains (heritage, landraces, ancient, populations)
• Real Bread focused market stalls
• The Big Thrash (especially for children), from sheaf to sourdough by hand: thresh (in a bag), winnow, grind
• Bannocks & Ballads: stories and songs from Marie Louise Cochrane, The Storytelling Cook
  …and much more!

Entry is free, but all donations are welcomed and will support Scotland The Bread’s work.

Author: Lesley Riddoch, The National

Something unusual and a bit hopeful is happening in deepest Argyll.

Green entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett is leading a pioneering bid to buy the whole of Tayvallich estate via Highlands Rewilding – a network of more than 220 “patient” green investors – rewilding and repopulating Knapdale alongside the local community.

Selling agents Strutt and Parker say their clients were “persuaded by Jeremy Leggett’s vision” and pushed the closing date back to February 28 so he can piece together the £10.5 million asking price through a mix of equity, crowdfunding and bank loans. If that mix succeeds, says Leggett, it’ll be the first time British banks have ever lent to a major rewilding project.

And that could provide a viable template for further bids. But will it work?

I met Leggett earlier this summer when he invited me to Bunloit – a small estate above Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness he bought in 2020. Walking round the old ruined clachan on the steep hills above Urquhart Castle, it was hard not to be swept up by Leggett’s vision – creating a new off-grid community here whilst also precisely measuring the increase in carbon sequestration and biodiversity to “beat this monster problem that threatens our collective future: Climate change”.

Leggett is certainly a man who puts his money where his mouth is. After leaving a comfortable academic job to work for Greenpeace, he invested in the “crazy, dreamy” technology of solar power – now the most cost-effective renewable – and took £3.3m from selling his company Solarcentury – plus millions more – to buy Bunloit and a second Scottish estate in Aberdeenshire for £7m. Then, partnering with start-ups and university experts, he has used drones with laser imaging to create a 3D model of the estate, calculating the volume of wood and thus of stored carbon.

It turns out native broadleaf trees store up to 100% more than previously thought, while neglected peat bogs emit far more.

Highlands Rewilding now knows that Bunloit stores roughly the equivalent of 2% of Scotland’s carbon emissions in 2019. And if carbon pricing is brought in, that’s how the estate could provide an extra return for its investors – over and above the usual, and seemingly endless, uplift in land prices.

But impressively, before all the 3D mapping, Leggett did something even tougher. Nothing. Instead, of powering ahead, the 67 year-old employed a local architect (whose family owns the neighbouring croft) and spent a year meeting locals and hearing their ideas before any eco-shovels hit the turf.

The same approach is being taken – in a much shorter time-frame – 130 miles down the Great Glen at Tayvallich, where it’s also won cautious support amongst locals.

Until news of the Highlands Rewilding bid broke this week, the community hoped to buy two of the 13 lots to house locals if other new owners proved to be absentee “old-style” lairds who ordered the customary “clear fell” of tenants.

Now though, that might not be necessary. According to Martin Mellor of Tayvallich Initiative Steering Group: “This isn’t community ownership but it might be the next best thing.

“We have some land gifted by the existing owners with a house, open land and woodland and a successful Scottish Land Fund bid to plan new affordable homes on it. So we’ll be busy.

“Fundraising to buy the whole estate would have been very hard for a small community, so it’s good to have an organisation with community prosperity at its heart.

“We’re not in the driving seat or the passenger seat but we’re a lot closer to the wheel. And at last, we are talking directly to the driver.”

It says something about the enduring Upstairs, Downstairs nature of landowning in Scotland that Jeremy Leggett’s eagerness to communicate sets him apart. But it does.

Here – with his permission – is a flavour of our email exchanges.

Is the community trust involved in any formal way?

We are working on a Memorandum of Understanding with the local community covering how we will work together. The chair of the Tayvallich Initiative is drafting it.

Why are you a better bet than community landowners?

I don’t think we are a better bet. Straight community buyouts are better for communities. But this model provides a degree of community co-ownership – via shareholding in Highlands Rewilding – and a vehicle for private investment to provide working capital for nature recovery.

Private capital is imperative because of the enormity of biodiversity collapse and climate meltdown. The Green Finance Institute estimates £20bn is needed for the Scottish Government to hit its 2030 targets. Highlands Rewilding aims to lead the way with “nature recovery and community prosperity via rewilding taken to scale in Scotland and later beyond.”

We aim to please communities and investors, recognising we’ll fall short of theoretical perfection on both sides.

Isn’t there an irony that interest from “green lairds” like yourself has driven up land values so high that community buyouts are increasingly impossible?

I am not a green laird. I am a minority shareholder in a progressive company I founded to tackle the existential threat of our times. I cannot make decisions on my own because I have a board composed of Highlanders which manifestly bats for rural Scotland as well as our shareholders.

That said, green lairds – whether corporations or billionaires buying large estates – have clearly helped pushed up land prices. If Scottish Government policies stimulate a pivot in land management to nature recovery, then landowners will make more money from carbon and biodiversity uplifts and that would create a taxable pool for Holyrood.

Do you recognise the fear about large, wealthy green buyers cornering the land market, and local people getting squeezed out all over again, after decades of hard-won community buyouts?

Yes, and it is justified. If I were a native-born Highlander I would be very upset about this. But I appeal to people who feel disenfranchised by the iniquities of history to take a holistic view rooted in the present. If we do not deal with biodiversity collapse and climate meltdown, nothing will matter, because we will no longer be in a liveable world.

What kind of security will existing Tayvallich tenants be given?

Nobody will be evicted. Those who can afford to buy, we will sell to. There will be one proviso for future tenants and buyers: A covenant to live in tune with the nature-recovery mission of Highlands Rewilding.

Will the rural housing burden be applied to new homes built on your land as the community requests (so all future buyers must be permanent not second-home residents? Yes. We won’t be building for, or selling to, second-home owners.

Yes to repopulation. There are 10 ruined residences on the estate we would hope to see restored, by us, a joint venture or by a local community eco-build co-op perhaps. What drew you to Tayvallich?

The unique scope to extend the rare Atlantic temperate rainforest, and all the biodiversity uplift and carbon sequestration that goes with it. Also, the chance to boost the local community. We hired 22 people in our first 2.5 years at Bunloit – most local and many with children. It would be the same story at Tayvallich and that might save the local school.

SO, can Jeremy Leggett persuade bankers to lend and hundreds more ordinary Scots to invest in nature and community restoration? If he can, will Highlands Rewilding create an exciting, viable, green and socially progressive template for landownership at Tayvallich or just another biodiverse way for locals to live without control?

The local jury’s out. But it’s also hopeful and slightly excited. At long last.

For more information go to https://invest.highlandsrewilding.co.uk/invest

Author: Improvement Service

The Improvement Service and Geoxphere have launched an easy mapping tool that will enable Scottish Community Councils and other community interest groups to map what is important to them and use these insights to have more of a say in what happens in their local areas.

The Parish Online tool, which is already used widely across the parish communities in England and Wales, has been adapted for Scotland and will be useful in enabling communities to easily create Local Place Plans, a legislative mechanism to have their views considered for councils’ Local Development Plans.

It incorporates many useful and interesting datasets about the environment, pollution, planning, transport and community features, and will also enable anyone to look at how far they can travel from any point in their neighbourhood in 5, 10 or 15 minutes by different modes of transport. This will be of great interest as the Scottish Government looks to promote the 20-minute neighbourhood concept.

It could also be a useful way for community groups to engage with their citizens and highlight specific areas of interest or concern in their local areas.

Chris Mewse, Managing Director of Parish Online, commented:

“It’s great to be able to launch the Community Map Scotland project. It’s something we’ve been keen to do for a long time, and we’re excited to start helping Community Councils create their Local Place Plans using our free mapping software.

“Community Councils are best-placed to decide what should happen in their local area as they have the local knowledge. They know what floods, they know where traffic forms, and they know the social and economic issues that local residents are facing. Harnessing that local knowledge into a forward-plan across the hundreds of councils across Scotland is going to be great to see.”

The tool will be available for free initially with the likelihood of a small subscription fee in future years. Community Councils can sign up to be part of the Community Map Scotland project by going to www.parish-online.co.uk/scotland and using the code cms12 when they sign up. This will give them 12 months of free access to the software.

Author: Erikka Askeland, Press and Journal

A long-awaited decision to connect wind farms in the Western Isles to the grid has been welcomed as a “hugely significant milestone” that will “unlock vast renewable potential” in the area.

A green light for plans for a subsea interconnector to Arnish from Beauly near Inverness comes after “many false dawns spanning decades” as the project awaited the green light from energy regulator, Ofgem.

Councillors in the Western Isles welcomed the approval of the link as the “most significant economic development ever to take place in the Western Isles”.

The backing for a multi-billion pound investment in a  number of electricity transmission reinforcement projects by north of Scotland electricity network operator Scotland and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN) have been confirmed in the regulator’s “accelerated strategic transmission investment” (ASTI) framework.

Of these, the 1.8GW Western Isles subsea link from the mainland to Lewis was deemed by the National Grid to be “essential” in order to meet UK government targets to deliver 50GW of power from offshore wind.

The link will run underground from National Grid at Beauly to Dundonnel then subsea to Arnish Point near Stornoway.

Other projects backed by Ofgem in its framework include a high-voltage link between Spittal in Caithness to Peterhead, a subsea link from Peterhead to England and the  reinforcement of the transmission links across the north and north-east, between Beauly, Blackhillock, New Deer and Peterhead; between Beauly, Loch Buidhe and Spittal; and Kintore, Tealing and Westfield; as well as the uprating the existing Beauly to Denny line.

SSEN added that the decision bolstered a “clear case to progress with plans to develop a transmission links to Orkney”.

SSEN, part of Perth-based energy firm SSE, said the regulator’s move confirms all of its projects that National Grid has identified as being required to deliver significant offshore wind projects being developed around the coasts of Scotland as part of the ScotWind offshore wind scheme.

This includes proposals for the Northland Sheena offshore wind farm near Lewis.

Concerns had been raised after the interconnector project had not been included in Ofgem’s consultation on accelerating onshore electricity transmission investment.

The new link will have the capacity to accommodate all known onshore wind contracted to connect in the Western Isles, as well as the two ScotWind sites closest to the islands, and the provision to transmit energy generated by future renewables projects in the islands.

Rob McDonald, managing director of SSEN Transmission, said: “After many false dawns spanning decades, today’s decision is a hugely significant milestone in finally unlocking the Western Isles vast renewable potential and importantly, provides the certainty we, our supply chain and Western Isles renewable developers need to take forward our investments.

“We would like to thank all those who have supported the need to provide a transmission connection to the Western Isles and we now look forward to working constructively with all stakeholders to deliver this long awaited and much needed investment, which will deliver significant local and national socio-economic benefits, as well as supporting 2030 Government targets, our future energy security and a pathway to net zero emissions.”

SNP MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar Alasdair Allan said: “It has been a frustrating business over the years, getting certainty about this project, and I hope that we now at last have some of that certainty.”

A spokesperson for SSEN Transmission added that the “clear shift” in government and regulatory policy towards investing in network infrastructure to meet future energy needs that there is now a “clear case to progress with plans to develop a transmission links to Orkney”.

It added: “We will continue to work constructively with Ofgem, government and wider stakeholders to secure the necessary regulatory approvals to take forward our proposals to at the earliest opportunity, unlocking Orkney’s vast renewable potential.”

Western Isles Council also welcomed news that the transmission link  to export “clean green” electricity from the Islands into the National Grid had been approved for delivery.

Council leader Paul Steele hailed the move as the the “most significant economic development ever to take place in the Western Isles”.

He said: “The islands have waited a long time for this excellent news.

“The potential for the Western Isles to be a world class resource in renewable energy has long been talked about and that potential can now be delivered for the benefit of the climate, UK energy security and our island economy.

“It has taken many years of hard work by so many people but the result is the most significant economic development ever to take place in the Western Isles,”

Cllr Donald Crichton, chair of the Comhairle’s sustainable development committee, said the link would “transform the economy of the Islands” as renewable energy projects that become viable thanks to the link provide funds for local community groups and opportunities for local companies to work on them.

He said: “The Comhairle has long campaigned for this transmission link and its delivery is testament to the staying power of the Comhairle over a period of almost 20 years, refusing to let this opportunity go and maintaining pressure on government, the regulator and our regional transmission owner.

“This is great and welcome news which has the potential to transform the economy of the islands through conventional community benefit, shared ownership in generation and supply chain benefits.

“The Comhairle will continue to press for early delivery of the link, before 2030 if possible.”

Na h-Eileanan an Iar SNP MP Angus MacNeil said: “This opens up the islands to fulfil its renewable energy potential bringing massive benefits to the islands’ economy.

“For so long we wanted Ofgem to green light a 600MW connection and they were insisting on 450WM.  Now Ofgem have green lighted a 1.8GW connector.

“Years have been lost and things could be a lot better had this been built years ago.

“As it is, construction is expected to be ongoing in 2025/26 with the project finished in 2030.”

Author: Paul Bradley, SCVO

Reform of FoI in Scotland is inevitable, but what that reform looks like is not…

While it may be the first time you’ve heard of it, proposals to reform FoI in Scotland have been brewing for some time. The consultation on a Member’s Bill comes from the Scottish Labour Member for West of Scotland. However, there is broad support across the political parties for the reform of FoI, with the Scottish Parliament calling for coverage of FoI to extend to all bodies that deliver public services or spend public funds.

Campaigners say the Scottish Government has been too slow to act on the committee’s recommendations, hence the proposal for a Member’s Bill. The Scottish Government has since published its own consultation, which closes the following month on 14 March. It also seeks views on ensuring people’s access to information rights keeps up with the changing landscape of public service delivery. However, as the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland puts it, the two FoI consultations ‘offer radically different solutions to acknowledged problems.’ 

Both consultations show that there is consensus across the political divide that reform of FoI is needed and inevitable, including the expanding scope of what is covered by FoI. What isn’t inevitable is how that reform takes shape, something that is clear from the differences between the two consultations open for views. Still, at the heart of both consultations are people’s access to information rights, and voluntary organisations of all types must engage now to inform this crucial debate, to ensure that any reforms are proportionate and effective.  

SCVO will provide further background information on the proposals to reform FoI over the coming weeks to support your engagement in our work.