Author: Gerry Hassan

The Scottish debate trundles on; accusation and counter-accusation are traded in the Scottish Parliament, Westminster and media about the most important issue in recent political history, namely independence.

All of the political parties are in unfamiliar terrain and don’t quite know what to do. In this strange situation, everyone sticks with what they know best, trying to feel safe in their comfort zones.

Behind the often arid talk of the constitution and things like ‘devo max’ and fiscal autonomy, the real issue is what kind of Scotland we aspire to, and even more deeply, what kind of collective future we wish to create.

This poses all sorts of questions to our political parties and traditions. How do we get past the Scots pastime of grand abstractions and fill out the detail of statehood and self-government? Independence is either the ultimate positive, the land where Scotland will be free and fair, or complete negative where we spend decades obsessing on the constitution and then wallow in introspection and navel-gazing.

We have to get past these simplicities and the shrill, insistent voices of unionism v. nationalism. Most Scots don’t see themselves as reflected in these tribes or visions. We could call this huge majority, ‘the other Scotland’, ‘We are 99% Scotland’ after the recent Occupy movements.

At this crucial point, Scotland has a significant lack of political and public spaces to aid any kind of thoughtful conversation. There have been previous attempts. There was the Scottish Civic Forum which drew from too narrow and complacent a section of the chattering classes. Then came the Scottish Parliament Futures Forum which has always been too close to the Parliament, politicians and civil servants and shied away from taking risks.

Neither of these bodies widened debate beyond the usual suspects and didn’t break out of old-fashioned ideas of engagement, while co-opting their participants by being part of the system.

One thing devolved Scotland has spawned is a plethora of Commissions and before that Conventions. While some of these have provided valuable expertise, the Scottish Broadcasting Commission being one example, we need to question this growing industry.

There has been too much window dressing and going through the motions of public engagement. Too much reverence for a past, supposedly, golden era; the ‘myth’ of the Scottish Constitutional Convention is one example which never was all it was claimed. It was the ultimate talking shop which didn’t despite what some of its participants claim ‘set up’ the Scottish Parliament.

Instead, the Convention of the 1980s and 1990s was a gathering of Scotland’s political establishment under Thatcher and then Major; although it did serve a purpose for a while aiding people coming together. But the last thing we need is another forum of big wigs, politicians and councils, purporting to talk for ‘civil society’. We need higher aspirations than that.

There are at least two distinct post-Convention approaches Scotland could take. The first is a Scottish Citizens type body, drawing on the lessons and successes of London Citizens. This would be locale focused, community led, not take public or private money, and be a genuine third space rather than a pseudo-voluntary agency of the extended state.

There is significant interest in setting up such a body in Scotland across a range of church and community groups, but there are challenges. How do groups like London Citizens understand Scotland’s difference, its sense of a nation and different Scotlands? Then there is the reality for Scottish churches and community groups about how they can aid this, and yet have the insight to not take it over, but to let flourish and grow itself? With all these caveats a Scottish Citizens could be one answer to the chasm in public life seen in the hollowing out of parties and decline of civic participation.

The second would be to create an independent initiative on Scotland’s future, something which isn’t in any shape or form a Commission or Convention in that it would not be stacked with the great and good, would have a very different mandate and embrace innovative processes.

Such an initiative would not talk exclusively about the constitution but about this and economic and social Scotland, the changing world of work, nature of welfare and what social justice means. It would be independent of the Scottish Government to be seen as non-partisan, but it could be (if people wished) sanctified by a vote of the Scottish Parliament.

One relevant example where this has worked – of a modern European nation engaging in a genuine ‘national conversation’ to identify what it wants to stand for and what it wants to champion was ‘Mission for Finland 2030’.

This was commissioned by the Finnish Government but mostly run by outside bodies such as Demos Finland to aid integrity and imagination. It brought together people, experts and significant parts of society in a genuine nationwide exercise which identified the half dozen or so themes which Finland as a whole agreed that it would get behind, collectively champion and own over the next 20 years.

People will say such an approach isn’t possible in Scotland and that we are not Finland. Yet we know many Scots like mission and purpose, and we also know from the experience of New Labour’s attempt to reduce child poverty that when politicians are both ambitious and specific that it engages the public; vision plus detail works.

What these two approaches have in common is that we have to start seeing political power as about more than politicians, and we have to aid politicians to be confident enough to let go of their monopoly.

Genuine, creative participation and engagement, whether a Scottish Citizens or ‘Mission for Scotland’ has to sit, engage with and listened to by government, while sitting outside of the system.

These are historic, almost revolutionary times across Europe, the Middle East and much of the world. If Scotland is to embark on its own rather more quiet and humble revolution, then we have to break out of the old restraints and take some risks.

Can we dare to create spaces and resources which go past the insults and big words and instead put flesh on what kind of Scottish future we want? Dare we not do so at this crucial point in our history?

Author: Lesley Riddoch, The Scotsman

What did wind turbines ever do to Bill Jamieson? The redoubtable Executive Editor of The Scotsman concluded last week that wind energy is based on “edifice economics, founded on sleight of hand taxation and powered by a gale of hope” which “will not keep Scotland’s lights on.”

Bill’s was an eloquent onslaught – but not the only one.

The first conference of Communities Against Turbines Scotland, in Ayrshire, held as the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IME), said the SNP’s green generating targets were not based on a “comprehensive engineering assessment” and Citigroup warned independence would add £875 annually to average domestic energy bills to compensate for lost UK subsidies.

And then to cap it all, Prince Philip weighed in. Wind farms, he tells us, are absolutely useless.

Ouch.

I’ve no idea why an institute representing engineers should be so ferociously opposed to a massive expansion in engineering jobs. I’ve no idea why civic leaders think an independence referendum will deter investors more than their own relentless negativity towards renewables.

I’ve also no idea why Bill Jamieson has constructed such a selective case against wind energy. He observes that shale gas discoveries have revitalised America, an American solar power manufacturer has gone belly up, New York State has pulled out of an offshore wind farm project, General Electric is reconsidering offshore wind investments in Europe and a professor has calculated each green job in Spain costs the taxpayer half a million pounds in a programme driven by political grandiosity not reason.

Doubtless we should all see a parallel with the Dear Leader at this point. And yes, Alex Salmond does indeed like his turbines. But honestly, what is all of this about? Another Bill has a very different view. Last week, Bill Gates urged the US government to triple its investment in green technologies to $16 billion annually, warning the country lags behind China, France and Canada in the race towards a low-carbon economy. Did you read about that one? Thought not.

Shale gas may boost UK supplies – at a price. It will use up Britain’s permitted emissions and divert investment from green technologies.

Of course, it’s right to ask questions about Scotland’s energy policy. But to paraphrase Hugh Grant, these aren’t straight balls – they’re googlies. Important voices within Scottish civic society seem curiously intent on killing the golden goose that is the best set of renewable resources in the northern hemisphere. Why? Have they all had wind farms built next door?

International energy comparisons can also mislead.

The wind resource available in Spain and Germany is a tiny fraction of Scotland’s. Just as we get little energy from a solar panel, most of the Mediterranean gets little energy from wind turbines. Panicking here about the future of wind because of Spanish problems is daft. It’s like the Norwegians panicking about hydro because a dam’s been cancelled in Mali due to lack of rainfall. But Bill is right to say that governments everywhere have driven energy policy for political reasons – chief amongst them the pro-nuclear Margaret Thatcher.

Happily, a new realism is creeping into energy policy worldwide – each nation is maximising its own best energy resource. In Austria and Switzerland that’s biomass. In Norway and Sweden – that’s hydro. In Scotland – that’s wind, wave and tidal, though only wind is ready as a mature technology.

Put them all together – as European planners are doing now – and you have the makings of a multimodal European energy super-grid that can lessen gas dependence on Russia and oil dependence on the Middle East. In future, energy could be swapped across time zones and borders to cope with adjacent peak demands and lessen loads. Isn’t that vaguely exciting?

Apparently not. Bill writes: “From Europe come warnings of failed renewables projects, disappointing results and voter disillusion. And from nearer home comes troubling evidence of how the push in renewables is destroying jobs and confronting millions of households with huge rises in energy bills.”

Which failed renewable projects are these?

I’ll bet none has failed like Dounreay. Yet, when the Mountaineering Council warned that wind turbines will destroy the “wildness” of the National Park this weekend, the story got four times more space than news that burying radioactive waste properly at Dounreay will cost £100 million.

Let’s stay with costs awhile. Energy bills have indeed risen by 16-19 per cent since August but that’s almost entirely because of a 40 per cent increase in gas prices over the last year. Energy regulator Ofgem says: “Higher gas prices have been the main driver of increasing energy bills over the last eight years.” 

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) predicts that “fossil fuel price volatility is a bigger driver of energy price variation than the impact of climate change policies”.

But what about the squillions we all fork out to subsidise wind energy? According to the DECC last month, the cost of the Renewables Obligation in 2009-10 was £1.1bn – an extra £20 on the average consumer’s bill. By contrast, the annual cost of nuclear decommissioning, according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), is £2bn.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests onshore wind will be cost competitive with gas and coal generation by 2016.

Who do we believe?

Generating plants are reaching the end of their lives and informed decisions must be made soon.

The danger is that anti-turbine hysteria will encourage the wrong choices. If renewable naysayers succeed, vital upgrades in grid transmission won’t happen. And lest the hares start running on that one, Scottish Power and SSE estimate the work should cost consumers less than 10p per week.

The obsession with wind turbines also obscures a much bigger energy problem – wasting it. Fintry Development Trust has cut £600 from annual energy bills by improving insulation, design, and boiler efficiency, while at the same time the Scottish Government’s own energy use has risen.

But low-key ways to save energy will always play second fiddle to the intensely emotional crescendo surrounding wind turbines.

The longer we postpone a concerted shift towards renewable research, design, testing and deployment, the bigger the burden we leave to our children, grandchildren or whichever generation is unlucky enough to be alive when fossil fuels and prevarication finally run out.

By then, of course, they’ll have inherited so many other problems from our myopic generation, one more may hardly matter.

Emotions run high over turbines – but the stakes run even higher.

Author: Alison Rennie, Paisley Daily Express

CAMPAIGNING villagers are celebrating after being told they are to get a new post office to replace the one which closed this summer.

Bridge of Weir Post Office shut its doors in June but bosses are now teaming up with community group, The Bridge, to open a new service in the village’s former library.

As well as the post office, the group also hopes to include a Fairtrade shop, DVD and record exchange and community meeting space inside the old library building, in Main Street.

Philip McCulloch, of The Bridge committee, said: “Everyone will be delighted to have the Post Office back in the village.

“Our project is going really well. We’ve had a great response from the village to our appeal for volunteers and now have 111 people signed up.

“We’ve done work to tidy up the gardens outside the building, so it’s looking a lot more welcoming now.”

The new post office will open on Monday, November 28, and it is hoped that three part-time jobs will be created.

Robert Findlay, from Post Office Ltd, said: “Our priority is to safeguard access to services in the longer term in Bridge of Weir.

“The establishment of this service with our proposed partner in Bridge of Weir presents the best possible solution to allow us to maintain a post office service in this area.

“This will provide many of the popular post office services that customers want on a regular basis.”

Bridge of Weir Library was closed earlier this year, with services being moved to the nearby Cargill Hall.

Generous villagers then dug deep to raise the £20,000 The Bridge needed to take over the building and bring back the post office.

Bosses at Post Office Ltd have stressed that the new service will be run for a year-long trial, with an assessment being made after 12 months to make sure it is meeting the needs of the community and is viable in the long term.

They have warned that the success of the new post office is reliant on customers using it on a regular basis.

A number of services will be available, including benefits payments, bill and budget payment schemes, postal orders and postage, international letters and packages and ordinary mail postage.

The post office will be opening six days a week – from 9am till 5pm on Mondays, from 1pm till 5pm on Tuesdays and Fridays, from 10am till 2pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays and from 9am till 1pm on Saturdays.

Post Office bosses are looking for feedback on the new facility and will be running a consultation until Tuesday, December 13.

They want to hear from residents who have any concerns over access and facilities at the new location, opening hours or issues specific to Bridge of Weir.

Minister’s visit recognises success of a community determined to shape its own destiny

Alex Neil, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment will visit the East Renfrewshire town of Neilston on Tuesday 13th December at 10am to mark the completion of a six year project undertaken by the local community to buy, develop and run their own community asset. 

The Bank (formerly the Clydesdale Bank) was purchased by the local community through the Community Right to Buy provisions of the Land Reform Scotland Act in 2006.  The Bank was, and is still, the only commercial building in Scotland to be bought using the full powers of the Act.  The community (through Neilston Development Trust) then operated the building as a cafe and activities centre, including an annual festival, carbon reduction project and volunteering programme, until funds were raised in 2010 to undertake a large scale refurbishment of the premises. 

The reopening of The Bank on 13th, with improved café, office, meeting and activity space is a significant milestone for both Neilston Development Trust and the wider community as it marks the completion of the first element of an ambitious programme, to bring about the physical, economic and social regeneration of the town.

Alex Neil said “I am delighted to be able to open Neilston Development Trust’s fantastic new community facility.  However the work of the Trust goes far beyond the bricks and mortar of the building.  The Trust has the vision, the energy and the ambition to make Neilston a better place for all who live, work and invest there.  It was seeing examples like NDT that made me determined that community led regeneration should be at the heart of our new national Regeneration Strategy that I launched yesterday.  This Government believes in the creativity, determination and skill of the Scottish people, and our new Strategy will help to unlock more and more of that potential across the country.”

The Trust, which was formed in 2006, has played a significant role in delivering a number of other ground-breaking initiatives.   These include the delivery, with partners, of the Renaissance Town programme, which engaged Neilston residents in setting out a future vision for the physical regeneration of the town.    This resulted in Neilston being designated as Scotland’s first renaissance town.

The Trust is now moving to financial close in its Limited Liability Partnership with a commercial wind farm developer (another first), for a 4 turbine development which will see around £10m of revenues being distributed for use within the community over the life of the project (25 years).  The aim is to create a financial situation which enables Neilston to shape its own future without being wholly reliant on external funders.

Key to the ongoing success of the Trust will be the continued ongoing support of the wider local community.    Until April this year, almost all of the work of the Trust was undertaken by volunteers and over 50,000 hours of volunteer time has been accrued so far.

NDT chair, Andrew Jones said “we have always been aware that, for the town’s longer term plans and ambitions to be achievable, we needed to take control of our own destiny.  The purchase and redevelopment of the Bank, which we hope will develop into a real hub for the town, and the community’s stake in the wind farm take us some way to being able to achieve our goals.  However, the whole focus and purpose of the work we are doing is the people who live here.  We want to ensure that we continue to reflect their vision and that they are able to actively contribute to seeing it realised.”

With the re-opening of the Bank, the Trust has taken another step towards delivering on its vision of an engaged, sustainable and thriving community with local people leading the charge.

Angus Hardie, Director of the Scottish Community Alliance said:  Neilston exemplifies at a local level so much of what is being espoused at national policy level in relation to community regeneration.    The Trust has managed to adopt a community led approach to regeneration which focusses on harnessing local people’s energies to bring about an enterprising and sustainable future for the town.

A contribution from Jenny Mackenzie, Leith Community Councillor

Following uncharitable rumours about their severe illness and imminent demise, a nationwide network of community councillors (Ccllrs)  across Scotland is ignited in debate.

Not just a hot-air talking shop, this conversation is a heated exchange that is fast-forwarding into action.  A website will be up before the end of the month that will bring that debate into the public domain. More than a few Ccllrs promise that within the next few years, community councils most definitely won’t be dead.  But they will be different.

The current model definitely needs review. Some say that a current concept that suits some Ccs, more so those in rural areas and some small villages, doesn’t work for urban areas.  City Ccs often have dense populations and complex and intensely competing needs to deal with.

Elections, usually uncontested, are frequently agreements amongst chums, hardly conducive to fair and representative committees. In others, local politicians shamelessly interfere in what are supposed to be a-political forums. Many well-meaning community councillors do not yet have the skills to resist or cope with poor chairing, interference from those who should know better or wilfully disruptive behaviours.  These practical problems can and will be addressed.  The Scottish Government knows that they exist, and says it is interested in helping to find solutions. We hope that time will prove that right.  

While Ccs have different levels of success in different parts of the country, many of their members are bound together by a common theme.  They want more accountability, interaction with and effectiveness from the authorities and officials who deliver the services to their communities.  They want to achieve this in an a-political way. In law they have statutory rights to comment on licensing and planning issues, but many question just how much effect this is having. They believe in the concept of local democracy and they want to exercise it so that it means something. Many don’t want to have to flirt with a small number of political parties with big ambitions to achieve these goals. 

Some want budgets devolved to Ccs, while others couldn’t think of anything worse than this level of financial responsibility.   Before we get to that level of engagement, we need a better model to work with.  There‘s a rich resource of people from across Scotland with skills, experience and commitment to their communities who need a better model for service than the one they’ve got now.  They are rapidly organising themselves into a credible force, and their plan is to make themselves heard where it mattes so that Ccs can make the difference they deserve. 

To listen to a radio interview on Radio Scotland with the author of this piece click on the MP3 file below:

JennyMackenzieInterview.mp3

Author: The Scotsman 28/11/11

A FEAT of Georgian engineering constructed to power a cotton mill is to be restored to its former glory and turned into a tourist attraction.

The network of reservoirs and a weir in the Ayrshire village of Catrine, built in 1787, was once the largest power scheme in the world. However, the entire structure has started to deteriorate, with sections of the weir at risk of being washed down the river.

The Heritage Lottery Fund will announce today that it is giving £660,000 towards a £4 million project to revamp the feature, which is designated as a scheduled monument. 

It consists of a weir, five reservoirs known as the Catrine Voes, a sluice gate and a fish pass. 

The system is an integral part of the history of Catrine, which began life in 1787 when Claude Alexander and David Dale, from New Lanark, saw the potential of the natural resources and built a water-powered cotton mill there. The village was laid out with the industrial buildings forming the centrepiece of the main square, and houses built for the workers. It is a substantially intact example of Georgian “town planning” and an outstanding conservation area with 51 listed structures.

In 1828, two giant water wheels, 50ft in diameter, were added to the power system to service the additional demands of the mill. Known as the “Lions of Catrine”, the wheels were for many years the most powerful in the world and became a tourist attraction in their own right.

The Heritage Lottery funding will contribute to a project to conserve the weir, upgrade a disused chapel to create a visitor centre and turn an adjoining Victorian villa into a new Community Enterprise Centre.

Rural affairs and environment secretary Richard Lochhead said: “I am pleased to see the Catrine water system being restored. It’s a fine example of Scotland’s industrial heritage that the local community can be proud of and will also help protect the rich biodiversity that fills the river and the surrounding countryside.”

Colin McLean, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: “For almost 200 years, the Catrine water system was central to the biodiversity and social history of the area, as it brought with it jobs, housing and economic prosperity.

“This project demonstrates how history can be a living part of a modern community, bringing people together to learn from, enjoy and benefit from their shared past.”

Stuart Nelson, of Catrine Community Trust, said: “The Community Trust and its supporters have worked tirelessly over the last five years in building the case for funding to save Catrine’s amazing industrial heritage and provide much-needed facilities to convey this to the many people who pass though the village on the River Ayr Way.

“This generous award virtually completes the £4m funding package that once seemed very far away and provides a much-needed boost to the capacity of the Trust to regenerate the village and provide employment.”

Author: Donald Morton, Stirling Observer 2/12/11

THE special series of meetings, workshops and demonstrations known as the Callander Charrette has been voted a success.

The charrette – defined as “an intense period of design activity” – was held over four days to let local residents, agencies, landowners, design professionals and project consultants work together to develop a masterplan for the town.

That will feed into the development of the new community action plan being led by Callander Community Development Trust.

More than 900 people attended and with the aid of around 6000 Post-It notes, 350 cups of tea and 103 hours of enthusiasm, worked hard through discussion, review and workshops to help in the construction of these plans.

The Callander community was supported by a number of partners including the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority and Stirling Council, to consider Callander as a place to live and visit, and share thoughts and ideas that could further the living experiences of current residents, future residents and visitors.

Community leaders and senior members of the park and council were thrilled by the enthusiasm and energy which the community embraced the event.

Now the hard work will begin through delivering the agreed priorities. It was proposed that the immediate priorities to be explored are:

A new river crossing at the east side of Callander;

Improvements to the look and infrastructure of the Main Street;

Improved connections and development of local foot and cycle paths;

Agreeing how to bring the former St Kessog’s Church building back into full use as a major attraction in the heart of the town.

The next stage of the process will include taking ideas and proposals identified and producing a draft report, which will be available in December for review by the Callander community.

The community development trust will also be using the information gathered in developing the next Callander Community Action Plan, setting out the projects the community wish to take forward.

The public can still view the exhibition from the design team’s recommendations in the Callander Youth Project in Bridgend. A section of the exhibition will then be moved to the National Park Office in Callander.

Stirling MP Bruce Crawford said: “I was very impressed by the commitment of the community in Callander to the charrette project which was demonstrated to me by the excellent level of attendance at the closing event.

“I was particularly pleased by the important contributions to the project made by the town’s younger people clearly evident that evening.

“I look forward to seeing the community, Stirling Council and the National Park Authority working together to explore how they can take forward the recommendations.”

Where the cuts hurt most

The initial phase of work has comprised two case studies that focus on experiences in two different communities – east Govan in Glasgow and the Gallatown neighbourhood of Kirkcaldy. The aim has been to learn more about specific circumstances and to deepen understanding of the effects of public spending reductions. 

The main focus has been on the lived experience and perspectives of residents, businesses, voluntary sector support bodies and public sector service organisations.

Five key messages to come out of the two case studies :

1. False economies – the reverse of preventative spend

There is a disproportionately negative impact on disadvantaged communities from the effect of relatively minor centralised ‘savings’ in basic physical maintenance regimes. Examples given included reductions in arrangements for grass cutting, litter and refuse collection, fence and road mending, lighting and landscaping. There was a perception of negative impacts on performance from the ‘contracting out’ of such services.

The resultant decline in physical appearance was seen to have damaged internal and external perceptions of place and people. It was noted that such decline repels the prospect of new external investments and undermines existing ones. It also erodes community resilience and residents personal investment at a time of increased local social land economic pressures.

2. Blocked systems – stymied aspirations

Despite initial media speculation on a ‘white collar recession’, the reality is that residents of disadvantaged areas have been particularly affected by stagnation in the employment market. This has had the effect of blocking off opportunities for young people and others seeking employment, training and further education. In addition to the thwarting of individual hopes and ambitions, the stagnation has also built up pressure on local employment support organisations; threatening their business plans, future sustainability and therefore their ability to deliver an increasingly important local service. Within this blocked system there was evidence of the continuing additional difficulties faced by minority groups and people with particular needs who continue to suffer from negative discrimination in accessing what limited opportunities still exist.

The same blockage phenomenon is evident with regard to local housing where those who have bought find they can’t sell. The lack of lending and capital means that there is little new house building for rent or sale. The resultant stagnation has halted plans for supporting the greater local economic diversification intended to support wider regeneration agendas. It also locks young people out and confines growing children and families into inadequate accommodation with obvious wider negative effects.

There was evidence that some householders who cannot sell go on to rent out their properties to individuals with no long-term commitment to the area or understanding of their community responsibilities. This was said to be a significant factor in local decline of the community. It was noted that this tended to be an especially rapid process in blocks of flats and one which can instigate a highly damaging ‘domino’ effect over the surrounding streets and then the wider community.

3. Fractured plans – lost investments

Regeneration partners have long been urged to work together for a ‘joined up approach’ to plans and investments. The prolonged stalling of private sector physical development investment is seen to be resulting in the fracturing and failure of previously agreed regeneration strategies and master-plans. This is especially the case in disadvantaged areas which are most vulnerable in the current recession to the ‘flight to prime’ of both private and public investments.

The effect is to leave existing regeneration related investments isolated and therefore economically unsustainable. Long term derelict land and empty or underused buildings produce further erosion of local image and investment confidence as referred to in point 4.1 above. There is also evidence of postponed or abandon private sector investment resulting in the loss of anticipated community benefits in terms of facilities and resources previously negotiated via formal and informal planning consultation processes.

4  Small cuts – Reverse empowerment

Disadvantaged communities often have responsive internal support networks based on social connections, projects and services developed over time in response to local needs and conditions. The Scottish Government is increasingly interested in the possibility of building on this network of activity to deliver greater community empowerment. This is currently being promoted as a potentially vital alternative source of community regeneration in the face of reduced external investment.

Evidence from the case studies indicates that cuts in relatively small scale grants and contracts provided to local services and social enterprises are undermining the basis for community empowerment as a way out of the currently accelerated cycle of decline in disadvantaged areas. The loss of capacity in local support organisations cuts off two-way partnership activity pipelines at the local level. It also damages prospects for services, opportunities, vitality, and social cohesion at a time of higher stresses within disadvantaged communities, homes and individuals. This is seen as the opposite of the ‘preventative spend’ approach, which was recently vaunted by the Scottish Government in its September 2011 Spending Review.

5.  Sense of abandonment – or all boats falling?

Beyond the issue of adequately resourcing and delivering basic public services, there is perceived to have been a general shift away from investment in broad-based support for long-standing economically disadvantaged communities. There was some evidence of communities feeling somewhat abandoned as the focus, and dedicated support resources, for disadvantaged areas is seen to diminish in the recession while national economic pressures on jobs and services increase local difficulties and demands.

It was noted that, for reasons of cost efficiency, locally developed and valued services are being spread increasingly thinly across wider geographies, resulting in loss of local service impact and ownership. In this context, there was some concern that what is seen as continuing and necessary limited and targeted investment in specific thematic groups – who still suffer discrimination and disadvantage on a wider and more dispersed geography – could appear divisive to some in contrast to the draining away of broader support for the more general local population.

Where people power can change things

The twelve ‘domains’ which Cormac Russell believes can be fundamentally changed by local people taking action at a community level can be viewed HERE

Author: Andy Wightman - Bella Caledonia

This blog was first published at Bella Caledonia on 29 September 2011