David Ross, The Herald

A TINY Scottish community is celebrating after beating BT’s attempts to remove its solitary red phone box – which has had no calls made from it for three years – by barricading it with their cars.

Villagers in Kilmuir on the Black Isle launched the campaign of direct action on the day the communications giant sent a lorry and crane to remove the old-fashioned box from its picturesque location within sight of the Kessock Bridge. In a rare triumph for people power, locals will now pay BT £1 to adopt the box. 

The victory came after the lorry driver sent by BT found a fleet of cars parked around the phone box. He sought the advice of his managers and beat a tactical retreat.  Local resident John Hill, 68, said it showed the strength of feeling about the local landmark, despite the fact mobile phones have made it all but redundant.

He said: “We knew no calls were being made from it. But the phone box was an important landmark and the notice about it being removed was put in the box where nobody could see it. It also said there was another box 400 metres away, which there isn’t – it’s three miles. But now we hear that BT will let us adopt it for £1. We are just awaiting confirmation and we will then come up with some ideas of what we will do with it.” 

BT said the community, with a population of less than 100, could have adopted the box three years ago.  A spokesman said: “No phone calls have been made from the Kilmuir kiosk in the past three years and we told Highland Council as far back as 2008 we were planning to remove it and no objection was received. A year later we put a hold on the removal of all red boxes as we launched our well-publicised Adopt-a-Kiosk campaign, giving local communities the opportunity to pay £1 to retain their red box and protect their heritage.”

He said BT recognised the red boxes were “British design icons” and people loved them. He added: “That’s exactly why we set up this scheme. But no adoption request was ever received for this particular box so we sanctioned its removal.

“We also posted a notice in the payphone asking people to get in touch with the council if they had any objections to its removal but none were received within the 90-day consultation period.”

He said that now the residents of Kilmuir had made their feelings clear, BT was happy to discuss adoption. “We have spoken to both Highland Council and their local councillor this morning.”

Around 150 red boxes have already been adopted by local communities in Scotland, with many becoming a focal point in villages for all sorts of imaginative activities. 

The spokesman said: “Our payphone network has shrunk over many years as mobile phone use has escalated. Calls have declined by more than 80% in the last five years and continue to decline at more than 20% year on year. Currently, around 100,000 calls are made per day across the UK, and just 3% of adults used a payphone in the last month.”

BT had 5900 payphones in Scotland five years ago; today, it has about 5250.

Caroline Wilson, Evening Times

Glasgow City Council is to transfer ownership of Community Central Halls in Maryhill to the committee which has transformed it into a thriving events space.

The halls provided a refuge for relatives of victims of the Stockline factory blast, which claimed the lives of nine people in 2004.

The handover announcement will be made today as two-days of free events gets under way to mark the 35th birthday of the halls trust.

Over the past three decades the halls has provided a wide range of community services, including a kids’ nursery, after school club, youth centre, a café and homecare for older people.

It has also played host to top Scottish bands including Snow Patrol and Belle and Sebastian.

Community Central Halls was built in the early 1920s as the Maryhill Methodist Central Hall. 

When the building came up for sale in the 1970s an action group was formed to reclaim it for the community. 

In 1976 Strathclyde Regional Council bought the building and handed over day-to-day running to a community development trust.

Anna Dyer, chairwoman of the halls trust, said: “This is something that we have been working towards – it is fantastic news for the community.

“We can now apply for grants to improve the building.”

A range of fun events is taking place today and tomorrow to mark the handover.

Mohammed Razaq, Labour councillor for Maryhill and Kelvin, said: “The halls are a great asset for the area and the transfer of ownership is going to really secure the future of the local services it provides.”

Felix Spittal, policy officer, SCVO

The first twenty projects approved by the People and Communities Fund (PCF) have just been announced. To those unfamiliar with the fund, a quick read of the list of successful organisations and projects might lead you to think this fund was established for housing associations to deliver employability programmes.  If that were the case, there wouldn’t be a problem because these are clearly worthy projects being delivered by good organisations.

However, the PCF is part of the government’s regeneration strategy and is supposed to be delivering community led regeneration through ‘Community Anchors’.  Community Anchors are independent community led organisations which act as a focal point for communities.

Housing associations are only one of many types of anchor which can include development trusts, village halls, renewable projects or other organisations which perform the role of connecting groups in a community.  So it’s disappointing to see housing associations being allocated the vast majority of the funding in this announcement. This is not to denigrate housing associations or the vital role they perform but to suggest that other types of anchor should be recognised and supported too.

In addition, the emphasis within the fund on established organisations means that new anchors struggling to get started and establish themselves will not be supported. Surely if you want to support community led regeneration it would be good to fund some new community anchors to establish themselves and start working towards regenerating their communities?

This is a minor quibble compared to the biggest issue with the fund.  The projects and services funded by the PCF have to align with two priorities – employability and prevention.  These are not bad priorities and would be fine for another funding programme.

However, the PCF is there to deliver community led regeneration. Community led regeneration should be about communities deciding what the priorities are in their area, then designing and delivering the solutions at a local level.  So this programme is not funding community led regeneration, it is funding organisations to deliver two government objectives.

Recent discussions on Community Planning at SCVO’s workshop on the Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill identified a similar problem. One of the major issues delegates have with Community Planning is its name – if it was called the ‘Public Sector Strategic Planning Partnership’ it would be better, because at least it would be clear to everyone what it’s about.

So the People and Communities Fund could be more accurately named the ‘Housing Association Employability and Prevention Fund’. That would be fine, as long as additional funding is allocated specifically for community led regeneration, with broad aims that allow communities to decide their own priorities. Isn’t that what community empowerment is all about?

A local authority has asked for public views on its idea that some services could be better provided by the communities that use them.

The suggestion has been made on Highland Council’s Budget Blog, which forms part of the authority’s efforts to consult on spending cuts.

The blog asks which services could be taken over by locally run projects.

The council has already agreed to set up a £1m challenge fund to help finance community-run services.

Dave Fallows, chairman of the finance, housing and resources committee, heads up the blog.

Writing on the blog, he said: “There are some circumstances where a community initiative – even at a very local level – can provide the same or better services than the council can, and at lower cost. 

“We have agreed to provide a £1m challenge fund to be available to get good ideas for provision of services going in local communities.

“Do you think that we should be encouraging communities to take on the running of some services for themselves, and if so, which?”

Highland Council has already suggested greater community involvement in other areas of its work.

Parents and local sports clubs will be asked to help make sure Highland schools meet targets for PE, according to an officers’ report earlier this month.

In his blog, Mr Fallows has also sought views on whether the council should reduce the frequency of street cleaning and grass cutting to save money, or if such action would be damaging in terms of tourism.

Highland Council spends £2.8m a year on grounds maintenance and £3.1m on cleaning streets and picking up litter.

All information in relation to the names and background of advisors, timescales for the review and the process for submitting evidence can be obtained from the website that was launched this week. Click here Land Reform Review

The members of the Advisory Group 

Professor David Adams – Ian Mactaggart Chair of Property & Urban Studies, University of Glasgow. Chartered Surveyor, chartered town planner, member of the Society of Property Researchers, Housing Studies Association, Regional Studies Association and the Royal Society of Arts. Research interests include State-market relations in land and property, with a particular interest in land, planning and regeneration policy. Previously undertaken extensive research on “Land ownership constraints to urban redevelopment” and more recently published RICS report on “Discovering property policy: an examination of Scottish Executive policy and the property sector”.

Andrew Bruce-Wootton – General Manager at Atholl Estates since 2000. Atholl Estates, which extends to some 145,000 acres of Perthshire, is one of the largest privately owned estate in Scotland. Formerly Assistant Factor, Buccleuch Estate (September 1993-April 2000). Director of Scottish Land and Estates (2008-2011). Deputy Chairman, Scottish Estates Business Group. Educated at Acadia University, Applied Science, Engineering (1984-87)

Amanda Bryan – Rural and Community Development consultant, specialising rural development and community development in the Highlands and Islands (trading as Aigas Associates). She was Chair of BBC Scotland’s Scottish Rural Affairs and Agriculture Advisory Committee from 2001 to 2006 and a former Development Manager with Ross and Cromarty Enterprise. She was employed by SNH as the Minch project Officer 1993-1995. She has served on the North Areas Board of SNH since 1997 and was previously depute Chair of that Board. She is also a Director of Kilmorack Community Hall. She has participated in a report for the Community Woodlands Association on an evaluation of partnerships between community groups and Forestry Commission Scotland (May 2006). She has worked with Stòras Uibhist on community engagement, and with Sleat Community Trust to review the Trust’s management structures. She is a Forum Member of Highland and the Islands Regional Forestry Forum. She is currently involved with the purchase of the Aigas Community Forest from Forestry Commission Scotland. In 2012, Amanda was appointed as Commissioner for Forestry Commission Scotland

Ian Cooke – Director of the Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS). DTAS promotes and supports development trusts – community led organisations who use enterprise activity and assets to regenerate their communities. DTAS has recently being involved in Scottish Government funded work around the transfer of public sector (predominantly local authority) assets to communities. Ian has been involved in community development for over 25 years, including posts as manager of the North Edinburgh Trust and the Pilton Partnership.

Simon A. Fraser OBE – Solicitor at Anderson-MacArthur, Stornoway. He is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in crofting law. He has been a past Dean of the Western Isles Faculty of Solicitors. He has advised many community buyouts and has also advised and acted for private estates. He is currently the Interim Crofting Administrator for Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn. He is a former Board Member of SNH (1998-2004), and Chair of its North Areas Board. He has been Chair of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust and is vice-chair of Urras nan Tursachan (the Callanish Standing Stones Trust). He is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for the Western Isles. He is a fluent Gaelic speaker with a lifelong interest in the social and natural history of the Western Highlands and Islands, and has a particular interest in rural development. He lives in the west of Lewis.

Priscilla Gordon-Duff – Manager of a family business and holder of a first-class degree in anthropology and sociology. Mrs Gordon-Duff is responsible for the business’s planning, policy and management in partnership with her husband and son. The business is involved in agriculture, forestry, property, commercial leases and community engagement. Chair of the National Forest Land Scheme Evaluation Panel since its establishment in 2005 (http://www.drummuirestate.co.uk/). She was chair of the Grampian Woodland Company and Forum, a board member of Paths for All, and was on the RSPB’s Scotland committee. She was the founding Chair of Drummuir 21, which is a local partnership working on sustainable development of the locality, including a community woodland, and has taken part in rural development study tours to Sweden and Norway.

Donald MacRae OBE – Chief Economist Lloyds Banking Group Scotland.  He founded the Business Forum – the networking organisation devoted to the development of new businesses.  He was appointed to the Board of Scottish Homes in 2002 and to the board of Scottish Enterprise in 2004.  He is a Trustee of the David Hume Institute and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.  He holds the Chair of visiting professor of Business and Economic Devlopment at the University of Abertay, Dundee

He was a member of the Scottish Executive Purchasers Information Advisory Group (PIAG), reforming the selling and purchase of residential property and a member of the Scottish Executive Statistics Group.

He was a member of the 2007-08 Committee of Inquiry into Crofting.  He as been a Member of the Rural Development Council.  He became a member of the Board of Governors of the University of the Highlands and Islands in January 2011 and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in July 2012.  He was awarded the OBE at the beginning of 2011.

Dr David Miller – Research Leader of Realising Land’s Potential, at the James Hutton Institute. He is Co-ordinator of the Land Use Theme of the Scottish Government Strategic Research Programme 2011-2016. He leads areas of the James Hutton Institute’s knowledge exchange programme, including for public engagement using the Virtual Landscape Theatre, and co-ordinates research and commercial projects relating to landscape and spatial modelling, including applications in renewable energy, urban greenspaces and wider land use planning. His research interests are in better understanding human uses, preferences and interpretation of land use and landscapes.

Bob Reid – Former Convenor of the National Access Forum. He was a former President of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (1990-1994) and was its representative in the early days of the Forum, and through his work for Grampian Regional Council and then Aberdeen City Council, was the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities representative throughout the long run-in to the enactment of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 from 1995 to 2004. He has considerable experience of upland access work, along with knowledge of low ground access issues from his local authority work and his interest in land management issues and stalking that have developed through his involvement in the NTS Mar Lodge Management Group. He has worked extensively with government and non-government organisations, business and politicians. He is a keen mountaineer, skier, sailor and naturalist

Agnes Rennie MBE – Lives with her family on her croft at South Galson on Lewis and is a native Gaelic speaker of long standing. She is Director of Acair, the Gaelic Book Publisher. She is retiring as a non-aligned Councillor at with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. She was a former Area Commissioner for Lewis and Harris, and was appointed as a Crofting Commissioner in 1998. She has been a Chair of Iomairt nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Enterprise). She is also Chair of Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn (UOG), which is the new community owner of the 56,000 acre Galson Estate. She was a member of the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting (Shucksmith).

Dr Madhu Satsangi – Senior Lecturer in Housing and Applied Social Science at the University of Stirling. Convenor of the Rural Housing Service which is much involved with rural communities across Scotland and has attracted John Swinney and Alex Neil, among others, to its annual conferences. Madhu Satsangi’s doctoral thesis dealt with social aspects of rural housing provision and his is qualified in Environmental Science and Town and Regional Planning. He has researched into, and published widely on, rural housing associations, the role of private landowners in affordable housing, community land ownership and the impact of rural home ownership grants. His latest publication, written with Nick Gallent and Mark Bevan, is The Rural Housing Question: Community and Planning in Britain’s Countrysides, Policy Press. He has two higher qualifications in French – the Diplôme de Langue Française and Diplôme Superieur d’Etudes Françaises Modernes – and a working knowledge of Gaelic

Dr John Watt OBE – Recently retired as Director Strengthening Communities at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, where he had responsibility for HIE’s work with social and community development, including community land ownership and the growth of social enterprises.  He has been involved in rural development for over 30 years, through his work for HIE and its predecessor the Highlands and Islands Development Board.  This included a range of activities including grass roots social and community development work and also economic research and strategy development while he was Head of Corporate Planning.

In 1997 he established HIE’s Community Land Unit and managed this for several years. The Unit was set up to promote community-led land purchases; provide advice and support for such initiatives through financial assistance and technical advice; and contribute to the research and development of land policy and legislation.  He was involved in many of the high profile community land buyouts and managed HIE’s contracts with the Lottery to run the Scottish Land Fund and the Growing Community Assets programme.

He is currently a non-executive director of New Start Highland and High Life Highland, two social enterprises based in his in home town of Inverness.

LANDOWNERS CHALLENGED TO LET RESIDENTS HAVE A SAY

A campaign was launched this week to challenge the absentee owners of the Island of Bute and the Applecross peninsula in Wester Ross to open up membership of the companies that own the estates to local residents and their supporters. 

Mount Stuart Trust owns 28,000 acres on Bute and is wholly controlled by five members of the Marquess of Bute’s family plus an accountant and lawyer. None of them live on Bute.

The Applecross Trust, which owns 61,000 acres of the Applecross peninsula in Wester Ross is wholly controlled by seven people and chaired by Richard Wills, of Andover, Hampshire. None of the members lives in Applecross.

Over ninety applications for membership rights were delivered on Wednesday 26 September to the Registered Offices of the companies in Edinburgh requesting membership rights . If successful, these members will work with local residents to hand over the companies to community control. Applicants in this initial wave include supporters from across Scotland as well as local people from Bute and Applecross.

The campaign is being run by Land Action Scotland – a new network of land rights activists across Scotland. A new website, www.landaction.org.uk gives further information  and the wider public will be invited to submit online applications for membership.

Andy Wightman, author, land rights campaigner, and the co-ordinator of the new Land Action Scotland campaign said:

“The aim is to democratise these private organisations which are meant to operate on a charitable basis. They exert enormous influence over the local communities of Bute and Applecross and yet they remain in the exclusive control of a handful of people who to date have shown no interest in extending participation to local residents.

“The time has passed for aristocrats and wealthy families to hide their continued control over vast tracts of Scotland behind front companies and charities, fig-leaves that allow them to keep control. The people of Bute and Applecross have the right to be members of these companies and play a full and democratic part in the future of the estate.

“We have therefore this week launched a major campaign to challenge the vested interests who control the company and to open up membership. The ball is now firmly with the Mount Stuart Trust and the Applecross Trust. Are they nepotistic cliques or are they prepared to share power with local people?”

Responding to the initiative, David Cameron of Community Land Scotland said,

“This is a very interesting development. 

“It is one of Community Land Scotland’s fundamental principles that community landownership must come from the communities themselves. Therefore if the community of Bute and the community of Applecross are in favour of this initiative as a means to ultimately secure community control for themselves, then we will support them.

“It is one of the tragedies of private landownership that some communities can be reluctant even to register an interest in community landownership, for fear that it is seen as a hostile move. 

“Land Action Scotland has made clear that their goal here is to put pressure on the estates to open up membership, at which point local community members could join as a means to ultimately securing community control”.

Walter Humes, Scottish Review

Bernard Levin once reported on a Labour Party conference at Blackpool for the Times. He began his column: ‘If Hell did not exist it would not be necessary to invent it. Blackpool would suffice’. The popular culture of the town clearly offended Mr Levin’s delicate constitution. Needless to say, civic dignitaries were deeply upset and much municipal huffing and puffing, of the kind that rarely enhances the reputation of local government, duly ensued. Mr Levin was advised that it might be prudent to steer clear of the north-west for the foreseeable future.

This episode came to mind last weekend – the September holiday weekend for Glaswegians. Blackpool used to be the most popular destination for the autumn short break before cheap flights to foreign parts offered more exotic prospects. However, even Blackpool is too sophisticated for my rustic tastes – I am sure I would qualify as a ‘pleb’ in the eyes of Andrew Mitchell (still government chief whip at the time of writing, but perhaps not by the time this appears) – and I settled for a day trip to Bute. 

Let me make it clear that I am very fond of Bute. It is a lovely island, with lots of interesting coastal and inland walks, a fascinating history, and locals who are invariably friendly and helpful. Then there is the architectural gem of Mount Stuart, a magnificent example of Victorian Gothic, refurbished to a superb standard. The short ferry crossing from Wemyss Bay makes the island easily accessible and, if you are lucky with the weather, and seeking relaxation rather than opportunities for late-night clubbing, you are sure to have a pleasant time. 

The one drawback is the main town of Rothesay. In common with many other small Scottish towns it has a depressing air about it, with a limited range of shops, some boarded up or with ‘closing down’ signs, crumbling tenements and many domestic and commercial properties up for sale (some have been on the market for years). 

There has been no shortage of attempts, both public and private, to remedy the situation. Last year the town secured a £1.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Argyll and Bute Council has a regeneration plan, with a budget of £30 million, aimed at improving the economic prospects of five of its principal waterfront towns – Rothesay, Campbeltown, Helensburgh, Oban and Dunoon. 

Historic Scotland, through its Townscape Heritage Initiative, has made a grant of half a million pounds to give a new lease of life to buildings in and around Guildford Square near the medieval castle in the town centre. A building which used to house the council offices and the sheriff court has been restored to create 25 new homes, some offered at prices intended to attract first-time buyers. There are also plans to refurbish Rothesay Pavilion which the writer Ian Jack has described as ‘the finest piece of 1930s modernism in Scotland’. Since 1990 there has been a very active Bute Conservation Trust which aims ‘to conserve and promote the built, natural and social heritage of Bute’. There is also the Bute Community Land Company which seeks ‘to improve the island for the benefit of residents and visitors alike’.

All this is admirable but the sheer scale of the problem should not be underestimated. The people who are working hard to improve Rothesay have to contend with the legacy of poor planning and ill-judged decisions by politicians and officials over several decades. Many fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings have been subdivided or extended in ways that are neither particularly functional nor aesthetically pleasing. 

Some of the newer buildings are just wholly inappropriate for their setting. For example, an ugly concrete block (1960s I would guess) which houses the library and the community centre is opposite the medieval castle. The library contains a fascinating collection of local material, of great interest to historians, and the staff are both knowledgeable and keen to assist inquirers. It is a shame that they have to work in a building that can only be described as a blot on the landscape. To reconfigure Rothesay in a way that would transform its appearance would require a fair amount of demolition as well as small-scale projects of reconstruction.

In some ways the plight of Rothesay, difficult though it is, is less dire than that of many other towns in Scotland. At least it is located on a beautiful island. But Bute’s economic decline, evident not only in the struggles of the tourist industry but also in the steady reduction in the number of working farms, is symptomatic of a much wider national trend. One thinks of the many grim towns in Fife, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, all suffering from the effects of the recession and the loss of employment opportunities, with the decaying residue of their industrial past still in evidence. I hesitate to name them, for fear of provoking an avalanche of hate mail, but no doubt SR readers will have their own favourite nominations.

The Scottish Government is well aware of the problem but tends to think in terms of allocating funds from different pots of money (transport, environment, employment, heritage, etc) and hoping that their combined impact will make a significant difference. To be effective, however, requires a sensitive and creative response at local level so that the interventions are not piecemeal and uncoordinated. 

Scotland used to have an international reputation in the field of town planning, especially through the work of Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), a pioneer in the field. No doubt there are modern specialists who are concerned about the quality of the built environment, and the contribution it can make to personal and social well-being. Their voices need to be heard more clearly if the urgent task of improving the civic appearance of large parts of Scotland is to be tackled successfully.

Walter Humes held professorships at the universities of Aberdeen, Strathclyde and West of Scotland and is now a visiting professor of education at the University of Stirling.

Scotland’s town centres are changing.  We need to ensure they are equipped well in the future to support the economic and social aspirations of communities.  This involves addressing the problems that some town centres face, alongside encouraging individuality and diversity – embracing the opportunities that can exist. 

In order to shape and drive this Review forward, an External Advisory Group (EAG) has been formed to move the debate on to the next level and to spearhead action on the future for Scotland’s town centres.  The EAG pulls together a range of people from diverse backgrounds with differing views on what town centres should look like and what solutions need to be put in place to manage change.  Malcolm Fraser, of Malcolm Fraser Architects is the Chair of the EAG.

Full list of EAG members

The review will have five phases:

Collation of research and thinking. In order to guide the review process, the Scottish Government will pull together recent research and thinking about town centres in Scotland.  This should help ensure that the start of the review process is focussed on action as opposed to debate.

Opening Event – Review Symposium. A two-day review symposium in Kilmarnock on 25 and 26 September 2012 will open the review.  Event attendees will comprise of EAG members and town centre experts.  The symposium will focus on agreeing the priority areas for action as part of Phases 3 and 4 of the review.  

Ideas Development and EAG member action (October 2012 – February 2013). As part of the Review Symposium, EAG members will be asked to commit to future action to take forward development of the ideas and initial prototypes falling out of Phase 2.  Professional bodies and agencies will be encouraged to come forward and work on the published themes with the lead EAG member.

Demonstration projects (2013). Following the completion of Phase 3, in 2013 local partnerships and communities will be invited forward to either test or challenge the published set of ideas and prototypes through a set of practical local projects.

Capturing the Learning. It will be important to capture the learning from each phase of the Review and to derive action for policy at both national and local level.  A robust plan for doing this is currently being developed.

Third Force News,  24th September 

RENEWABLE energy developers and communities are being urged to post details of their community benefit programmes on a new register that will map how Scotland is profiting from developments.

More than 100 communities in Scotland are thought to be benefitting from deals with the developers of Scotland’s 136 wind farms and around 30 hydro schemes. The agreements range from annual cash payments to community groups or charities to employment and training opportunities.

The register, which has been created by Community Energy Scotland, is a voluntary database that aims to develop a much clearer picture of the different types of benefit that communities are receiving.

At present, most arrangements are in the form of a single or annual cash payment, which may or may not be paid directly to the community concerned.

For example, since 2008, Scottish Power Renewables, which runs Scotland’s biggest wind farm at Whitelee (pictured), has donated £1,480,750 to communities in East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire.

First Minister Alex Salmond welcomed the launch of the register and said that it would be a useful tool to help communities in areas where new renewable energy schemes are being developed.

“Many communities are already reaping the benefits of green energy and the new register provides a level playing field to ensure more share in the advantages of Scotland’s vast natural resources,” he said.

“The Community Benefit Register allows local communities to enter negotiations with developers – from those putting up single turbines on farms and estates to those building the largest schemes – on an even footing.”

There are already 34 entries on the database from developers and communities.

Jennifer Ramsay of Community Energy Scotland said: “The register will detail the tangible benefits to communities from developments, and underline the positive changes that the funds have generated on a local level.

“The information is available to all, and anyone with an interest in community benefit schemes will see quickly and easily what funds are in place across Scotland.”

Want to know more : www.communityenergyscotland.org.uk/register.

Jon Henley, The Guardian

Books, believes Hernando Guanlao, need to live. And they’re only alive if they are being read. Thought and effort, time and money went into making them; they will never repay it lying idle in a cabinet or on a shelf. Books need to be set free. So walk by his home on Balagtas Street in Makati, downtown Manila, and it seems books are pretty much all you’ll see. Thousands of them, on shelves and in crates outside on the pavement, piled high in the garage and on the stairs, each one free to anyone who wants it.

“People can borrow, take home, bring back or keep,” says Guanlao, 60, a former tax accountant, ice-cream salesman and government employee known by all as Nanie. “Or they can share and pass on to another. But basically they should just take, take!” Guanlao reckons books “have lives, and have to lead them. They have work to do. And the act of giving a book …it makes you complete. It makes your life meaningful and abundant.”

Thankfully for Guanlao’s faith in human nature, people also give – often people he has never previously met, or doesn’t even see: they leave boxes of books outside his door. “What’s taken gets replaced many times over,” he says. “I don’t keep an inventory. But there are a lot of books. They want to be read, so they come here.”

The Reading Club 2000, as it is called, began 12 years ago as a tribute to Guanlao’s late parents, both civil servants. “They gave me my love of reading,” he says. “I wanted to honour them and to do some kind of community service. So I put my old books – and my brothers’ and sisters’, maybe 100 in all – outside, to see if anyone was interested.”

It took a while for people to work out that this was, as Guanlao puts it, a library “open 24/7, and with no rules”, but the scheme, offering everything from battered crime paperbacks to fashion magazines, technical manuals, arcane histories and school textbooks, is booming.

It is helped by the fact that despite a 1994 act pledging “reading centres throughout the country”, the Philippines, with a population of 92 million, has fewer than 700 public libraries, and buying books is a luxury many cannot afford.

Fortunately the Reading Club is spreading. Guanlao takes boxes of books into Manila’s neighbourhoods himself, on a specially adapted book bike. He has also helped friends set up similar schemes at 10 other sites around the country, and inspired student book drives.

Aurora Verayo, from a town several hours drive from Manila, says she came to see Guanlao to donate books, but he persuaded her to open her own centre. “I’m going a step further and offering reading sessions for children,” she says. “This is the start of a movement.” Mark, a 16-year-old accountancy student at the Philippine Christian University in Manila, is organising a book drive with friends. “We’ve collected 90 books so far, and we expect many more,” he says. “We’re taking them to the barrios next month. Books open minds. A book can take you anywhere.”