Author: Kaiya Marjoribanks, Stirling Observer Friday

FINTRY Development Trust is to give three hours of free community car use to every household in the village. The car club Fintry Energy Efficient Transport (FEET) was launched by Stirling MSP and Scottish Government minister Bruce Crawford in June.

A grant from Transport Scotland gave it two cars: a five-seater and seven-seater. The trust says FEET promotes pollution reduction, reduces the village’s carbon footprint and will reduce traffic congestion. And to encourage the whole community to take advantage of the scheme it is posting each Fintry household three vouchers, each worth an hour of free car use.

A spokesperson said: “Every household in Fintry stands to benefit, whether drivers or not, as the vouchers are transferable and can be exchanged within the Fintry Community. FDT believes this voucher programme will incentivise lift-sharing, community-based shopping agreements, etc.”

“Whilst every household will receive the vouchers, they can only be redeemed by a driver and member of FEET. Vouchers expire on February 1, 2012. Membership of a car club offers a wealth of benefits as well as helping the environment. Whether considering getting rid of that second car or downsizing your living costs, now is the perfect time.” 

“As a FEET member you no longer have to worry about expensive car maintenance, tax, roadside assistance and insurance. To see if joining the car club can save you money, check out the handy calculator at www.carplus.org.uk.”

“Joining is so easy. Just go to www.moorcar.co.uk and sign up as a Fintry member. Membership only costs £60 per year (a £100 pound deposit is returned upon termination of membership) and only £30 per additional household member. For this small fee you have access to book either the five or seven-seater FEET vehicles, as and when you like. You will also have car club insurance, 24-hour road side assistance, support and access to a quick and easy online booking system. You can book weeks in advance, or, just a few minutes’ notice is all that is necessary (depending on availability).”

“There is a FDT community computer available in the bowling hall of the sports centre if you do not have the internet at home. You can hire by the hour or day. The starting hourly rate is £2.50 per hour. A maximum of £21.60 is charged for a 24-hour booking. As an additional benefit, Fintry-based FEET members have reciprocal agreement access to all the vehicles in the various Moorcar Car Club Cooperative and Citycar fleets. That means you can utilise your membership to access vehicles in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, etc – the list goes on.”

For more information visit www.moorcar.co.uk, 

email Kelly at: Kelly@fintrydt.org.uk or contact the trust directly on info@fintrydt.org.uk with any questions.

I’m sure at least some of you by now will have heard something about a new community supported bakery, opening in the old farm shop at Whitmuir.

Breadshare is a community supported bakery, borrowing from the community supported agriculture model, so (hopefully) some people will pledge to buy a certain amount of bread and pay upfront for their supply. Others may lend money in the form of a bread bond… We hope to have breadbaskets (or panniers) who, making use of journeys already taken, to work, the gym, school etc, will help us to distribute our breads to the wider community without increasing our carbon footprint. We hope, eventually, to be a conduit for real bread to get to people and places who might not usually be able to access it.

We celebrated our launch on the 1st of August, Lammas, the traditional date for celebrating the wheat and grain harvest. We had speeches from Andrew Whitley explaining why bread matters, children’s activities (including the wonderful Mrs Mash) and a chance for folk to talk to us and tell us how they’d like to be involved and support us. We baked a long lamancha lammas loaf for the occasion to cut up and shared, made with a percentage of wheat grown and harvested at Whitmuir and milled just a few minutes away at Macbiehill it’s a really local loaf!

If you’d like to find out more please contact us on breadsharebakery@gmail.com

Expenses, bonuses and hacking crises share origins, says campaign group that includes Greg Dyke and Philip Pullman

A public jury would take power back from the elite, campaigners say, as typified by Fred Goodwin, ex-Royal Bank of Scotland boss. 

Britain is being run by a “feral” elite whose members are responsible for a series of crises – from phone hacking to the row over bankers’ bonuses – which have scarred the country, a new, non-party group headed by the author Philip Pullman claims.

A 1,000-strong “public jury” should be selected at random to draw up a “public interest first” test to ensure that power is taken away from “remote interest groups” which currently treat the public with contempt, according to the group’s declaration. The call for a public jury, which has been signed by 56 academics, writers, trade unionists and politicians from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green party, is published in the Guardian.

Its signatories include Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, Caroline Lucas, the only Green MP who is also her party’s leader, and the civil liberties campaigner and Labour peer Lady Kennedy. Guardian columnists Polly Toynbee and Madeleine Bunting have also signed the declaration.

Launched by Neal Lawson, a former adviser to Gordon Brown who chairs the left of centre Compass group, the group says that decisive action is needed to wrest power back from a small elite.

“Something is unravelling before our eyes,” the group says. “From bankers to media barons, private interests have bankrupted and corrupted the public realm. Power, for so long hidden in the pockets of a cosy elite, has been exposed. Those who wield it have been found wanting – in scruples, in morals and in decency.”

The group says that the three crises – MPs’ expenses, bankers’ bonuses and illegal phone hacking – share common origins. “Politicians, bankers and media moguls … share a common culture in which greed is good, everyone takes their turn at the trough, and private interest takes precedence over the public good.”

In a Guardian article, the authors of the declaration warn of a “feral” elite. Lawson and Andrew Simms, fellow at the New Economics Foundation, write: “With no pressure for higher ethical standards, the new all-powerful elites were like kids left free in the sweetshop, going feral as they lost all self-control and all touch with society.”

The group says that 1,000 citizens should be selected at random to sit on a public jury that will propose reforms to banking, politics. The jury, to be funded from the public purse, would examine:

• Media ownership.

• The financial sector’s role in the crash.

• MP selections and accountability.

• Policing and public interest.

• How to apply a “public interest first” test more generally to British political and corporate life.

The declaration’s main critique of Britain – that power is concentrated in the hands of a small elite – echoes the thinking of Ed Miliband. The Labour leader, who has been praised for shaping the public response to the phone-hacking scandal, recently said that too much power in the media and other industries is concentrated in the hands of too few people.

“The powerful are very good at talking about the responsibilities of the powerless but they aren’t very good at looking at their own responsibilities,” Miliband told the Times on 23 July as he called for the “big six” energy companies to be broken up. “Labour is the party of the grafters, the people who work hard and do the decent thing but don’t feel they get a very fair deal out of society.”The declaration is also signed by Lord Wood, an Oxford don who is a senior adviser to Miliband.

Communities in high density, deprived urban areas in Scotland are one step closer to developing more sustainable renewable energy sources locally. Community Energy Scotland has secured just over £400,000 from the Scottish Government to assist such communities cover feasibility and capital installation costs and address fuel poverty issues.

Such small communities do not find it easy to secure loans to install for example solar water heating in social housing or homeless hostels. Even energy efficiency audits and feasibility studies are difficult to find funding for in these areas most in need of support.

Community Energy Scotland has been assisting over 800 communities throughout Scotland in such projects through a grant system now replaced with the Community and Renewable Energy Loan Scheme. CES already have assisted urban projects but realised that many deprived areas would not now be able to take advantage of the new system. Securing over £400,000 from the Scottish Government and putting an urban Development Officer, Ruth Evans, in place will drive new energy into these communities.

For further information, contact Ruth.Evans@communityenergyscotland.org.uk

Author: TFN

COMMUNITY campaigners have backed the Scottish Government’s bid for full devolution of Scotland’s Crown Estate land following a Treasury announcement of a new lottery fund based on the revenue.  Critics have described the move as a “red herring” claiming that it distracts from the real issue of ensuring that Scottish communities fully benefit from Crown Estate land and sea.

Chief secretary of the Treasury Danny Alexander announced last week that 50 per cent of the revenue from Scotland’s Crown Estate marine activities would be put into a new fund run by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland. The fund will start off with £1.85m a year for the Highlands and Islands and £2.05m for the rest of Scotland.

However, this week the Big Lottery Fund Scotland was unable to explain how the money would be distributed or even whether the Scottish or UK committees would make that decision. And community campaigners said that the Scottish people deserved to benefit much more from activities on the Crown Estate, which are predicted to rocket as the Scottish Government aims to turn Scotland into a renewable energy leader with the development of offshore windfarms.

Angus Hardie, Scottish Community Alliance director, said: “This decision to allocate some of revenues from the Crown Estate to communities is a bit of a red herring. The real issue is about where control and accountability sits for what happens to Scotland’s Crown Estate.

“There just seems no logical argument in support of the current arrangement which allows a remote London based property management company – Crown Estate Commissioners – to make crucial decisions about what happens around Scotland’s coastal waters.

“If responsibility were to lie with the Scottish Parliament then at least we could have a more open and transparent debate about how any  revenues should be allocated and whether coastal communities – those most affected – should get more. “

The move has also been criticised for pre-empting an investigation by the Westminster Scottish Affairs committee, which is currently collecting evidence on how Crown Estate revenues could be best used to the benefit of local communities in Scotland.

A report expected to be published later in the year.

David Cameron, chairman of Community Land Scotland, which represents Scotland’s community land owners including many coastal communities, said: “For decades the Crown Estate has been criticised for taking a lot of revenue, but giving little back. I hope the important precedent that at least half of the marine revenues going to coastal communities can be built on in future.

“How the fund is administered, together with the detailed criteria will be crucial.

“However, the Crown Estate is in need of much wider reform and, important though today’s announcement is, it should not distract from that reform agenda. We will be giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee in September on some of the other reforms of the Crown Estate we would like to see.”

A spokesman for the Big Lottery Fund this week could not give details of how this new coastal community fund would operate, stating: “We can confirm that we are in discussions with the Treasury about the best way such a fund could be delivered.”

Following the announcement last week, Richard Lochhead, Scottish Government cabinet secretary for rural affairs and the environment, said: “It is good that the UK Government has finally woken up to these demands – however this measure does not go nearly far enough. Scotland should benefit from 100 per cent of Crown Estate revenues, not 50 per cent.

“Full devolution of the Crown Estate would give the people of Scotland a say in how public assets are used, rather than leaving decisions to the unelected commissioners who manage the Crown Estate.”

Author: Brian Donnelly, The Herald

SCOTTISH charities could lose up to £200 million in public funding from Holyrood over the next four years as a result of the UK Government’s austerity measures, it has been claimed.

The umbrella body for voluntary organisations in Scotland warned the Scottish Government that if it passes on cuts at the level intended at Westminster, good causes could suffer an 11% drop in income.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) made the comments after its counterpart in England, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, produced a report claiming UK charities stood to lose nearly £3 billion over four years under the Coalition Government’s Big Society plans.

SCVO director of public affairs John Downie said its estimates of the impact are “even more dramatic” than predicted by the NCVO. He said its report only looks at funding to the charity sector through the Scotland Office, and cuts to the Scottish block grant, estimated at 11% over the spending review period, are “much greater cause for concern”.

“If the Scottish Government were to pass that on to charities and voluntary organisations, the sector could lose as much as £200 million, leaving thousands of vulnerable people without the vital lifelines they rely on,” he said.

Mr Downie said there was concern over funding for charities at a time of widespread public-sector cuts. 

But he added: “We are confident, however, that the Scottish Government will not pass on a cut of anywhere near this size but will continue to invest in the third sector, to ensure it can increase its economic contribution, have a stronger presence in delivering public services and to use its expertise in employ-ability to create opportunities for our young people.”

Scotland’s voluntary sector has a turnover of £4.4 billion, 42% (£1.8bn) of which comes from central and local government.

Yesterday’s report came as research by the trade union-funded anti-cuts campaign False Economy suggested more than 2000 charities are having to close services and pay off staff as local authorities slash their funding.

False Economy’s director Clifford Singer said: “The idea that charities could step up and replace much of the work previously done by the public sector always looked dubious, but this latest research underlines that far from growing, the charity sector is actually shrinking.

“Never has the gap between the Government’s Big Society rhetoric and the reality of its savage cuts looked starker.”

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell said: “What is becoming apparent is the scale of the cuts that charities are facing across the country, which are beginning to undermine the very building blocks of community life. It beggars belief that the Tory-led government still do not have a complete picture of the impact that their actions will have.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Big Society offers the voluntary sector many new opportunities to grow.

“Our reforms will allow the voluntary sector to bid for public-service contracts worth billions of pounds.

“Just last week Big Society Capital launched with an expected £600m to give the sector access to much-needed finance, which will help it expand and bid for these new contracts. We’re also doing more to support giving and philanthropy, including measures in the Budget.”

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “[False Economy’s] authoritative research shows that for all the warm words about the Big Society, the Government has created a funding crisis for charities, with many scaling back or cutting services altogether.”

The NCVO used figures from the Government’s spending plans produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility to calculate what they believe is the first accurate estimate of the impact of the austerity programme on charities.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We recognise the important contribution the third sector makes to supporting our economic recovery, creating employment and skills opportunities as well improving public services and supporting communities.

“We are committed to continuing to support the sector and that’s why the core budget was increased by 16% in 2011/12 to £24m despite cuts from Westminster. This builds on the £91m which we have already invested in the third sector since 2008.”

Gordon Brown has praised credit unions for their work to tackle inequality and called on them to set the agenda for the financial system based on the principles of fairness and responsibility. 

The former Prime Minister was speaking at the World Credit Union Conference in Glasgow to an audience of 1400 people from over 50 countries.

Gordon Brown said:  “We have seen the biggest financial crisis of our history which was caused by the banks forgetting the basic values of fairness and responsibility which we all adhere to as a matter of course in our personal and professional lives.  Credit unions, which have already seen fantastic growth in recent years, are faced with enormous opportunities because they are based on fundamental values of fairness and responsibility… 

“We should build the financial system of the future based on principles of fairness and responsibility that have always been at the heart of the credit union movement.  So there is a big agenda ahead and, from Glasgow this week, I hope that you can set that agenda.” 

Mr Brown also remarked on the growth of credit unions in Britain which now provide services to over 900,000 people, including 5000 in his own constituency.  He observed how this has been helped by the Growth Fund, introduced by the last Labour Government, which provided over 400,000 affordable loans to the value of £175 million, mainly through credit unions, and saved borrowers a similar amount in interest payments. 

ABCUL Chief Executive Mark Lyonette said: “I know that the credit union representatives around the world will have been very pleased to hear Gordon Brown express such respect and faith in both their work and their potential.  Credit unions in Britain have benefitted greatly from Government investment in recent years and it is testament to the success of the Growth Fund and credit unions’ ability to change lives that the current Government is carrying out feasibility studies to examine the best way to carry forward this investment and continue growing the credit union sector.” 

Letter from John Swinney to all MSPs

Association of Scottish Community Councils

You will have received yesterday’s announcement by the Association of Scottish Community Councils (ASCC) that it intends to cease its work, with final effect by April 2012. The ASCC communication suggests that its decision has been forced as a direct consequence of cuts to its Scottish Government funding.

All MSPs will deal regularly with Community Councils and Community Councillors in their constituencies and I appreciate that both they and you will have questions about the implications of the ASCC decision. For accuracy I should point out that although there is no obligation for Scottish Government to fund the ASCC, it has received around £180,000 in funding from us since 2007/08. For 2011/12, it has been offered £40,000. In 2010/11 it was offered £30,000; plus a maximum of £20,000 match funds for income it secured itself.

This year’s funding is offered chiefly to deliver training and development to Community Councils in support of their role as vibrant and active voices for local citizens and communities. I should also say that the offer of £40,000 was increased by £10,000 from an earlier offer made in March, in the light of new information provided by the ASCC about the financial challenges it believed it would face this year.

I recognise the challenges faced by small voluntary sector organisations like the ASCC, which playa fundamental role in community engagement and participation across Scotland.

In the last few months we have consistently offered to work with the ASCC to help it strengthen its financial viability, focus on the key strengths it can offer Community Councils, and improve its overall efficiency and effectiveness. That offer remains, although of course I respect the decision the ASCC Board has taken.

The current economic climate, where Scotland faces unprecedented cuts to its overall budget, makes funding decisions like this one even tougher. In this highly challenging environment, the ASCC’s funding bid for 2011/12 was handled no differently from other pressing calls on public funds. Its original bid requested £98,000, almost double the amount it received last year.

This case highlights once more the pressing need to secure greater value for money, reduce duplication and think creatively about how we can pool the collective strengths of the public, third and other sectors. The findings of the Christie Commission, published last week and welcomed by this Government, only underline these points more strongly. But in this challenging context, I am also committed to growing and strengthening the role of Community Councils.

/

JOHN SWINNEY

Author: Lesley Riddoch, Scotsman

What do Ryanair and community land buy-outs like Eigg have in common? Different as they are, Ireland’s cut-price airline and Scotland’s first island community buy-out prove the same thing. 

Relatively remote places can be viable and popular once there is leadership and belief, a small investment and an end to restrictive practices. Scotland’s 17 community land buy-out trusts, however, may be able to go one step further than Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, and offer a new model for public service delivery across rural and urban Scotland. And to realise that potential they may need a share of council tax.

Last week’s report by Dr Sarah Skerratt at the Scottish Agricultural College possibly surprised no-one by showing Eigg, Assynt, Gigha, Knoydart and the rest have become demonstrably more resilient since communities took control over the last 20 years. School rolls have almost doubled in the oldest buy-out areas. Population has increased, energy supply systems have improved and local land ownership has prompted the construction of new affordable and sheltered homes. Now elderly members of buy-out communities don’t face the unpalatable choice of life in a local house with cold water and no heating or life in a lonely, heated room in some distant town. 

On Eigg, seasonally unemployed islanders set up a building co-operative to tackle the backlog in housing improvements – they are now sought after island-building experts. On Gigha a canny partnership saw locals offer community-owned land to Loch Fyne Housing Association who built new private and publicly owned homes. The result has been ground-breaking and high quality – winning the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Excellence in Regeneration Award 2011. Life is better now. But many would ask, why should it not be? 

Private landowners of these west-coast estates varied from the well-meaning but incompetent, to the absent and the hostile. One man’s absolute control once stifled all appetite for growth or improvement. And almost all hope. The first members of the Isle of Eigg Trust were non-islanders – like myself. That way no locals could be evicted from houses or sacked from island jobs for any perceived act of defiance. 

How things have changed. Folk once too wary to attend a public meeting now cheerfully manage accounts containing millions of pounds. Confidence and capacity have been demonstrated by securing hard-to-win European funding for projects like Eiggtricity – the renewables-based local electricity grid. The mixed solar, hydro and wind energy system removed dependence on expensive, polluting, diesel generators without increasing long-suppressed energy demand. Homes trip if usage exceeds a modest 5KW and small business has a 10KW limit.

Such laudable and sustainable self restraint could only be community-regulated – Eiggtricity now acts as a model (and a magnet) for communities across Europe. 

But how much did it cost the public purse? The purchase of Eigg in 1997 was made almost

entirely through public donations – the largest was a £900,000 from an anonymous female benefactor in the North of England. The 100 people of Gigha paid back £1m of their Scottish Land Fund purchase grant by hundreds of small fundraising efforts and selling Achamore House.

The National Lottery Heritage Memorial Fund offered Eigg islanders a million pounds- as long as public bodies had 51 per cent ownership of Eigg. The islanders politely declined. The upside is that communities continue to do the heavy lifting habit themselves. The downside is that some politicians have been motivated to fund other community buy-outs through guilt (over earlier inaction) not belief (in the capacity of communities to transform themselves). This has to change.

Despite the Land Reform Act Scotland still has one of the most concentrated patterns of landownership in Europe. The force of history has not been undone and the legacy of paternalism lives on in the hearts and minds of hesitant Scots.

People in similarly battered communities survey the dauntingly successful and “solid” looking community buy-outs of Eigg, Assynt and Gigha and conclude they must be a different set of people. Others could never achieve that degree of cohesion and familiar but focused community rule. The Eiggachs would be the first to say – it wasn’t always so. It’s taken a decade for the power base of competence and mutual trust to reach its current high.

But if anyone suggested that a distant formal body like a council could run almost any service better than they could a loud collective snort would echo across the Minch. That is the sound of a real, full-blooded, empowered community. And these days the sound would not echo emptily across the glens. As councils face the grim task of saving millions from budgets, hundreds of land and wind-energy rich community development trusts are planning how to spend their investment dividends. Should they treat the cash like “pin money” – providing window boxes, traffic-calming or other marginal improvements when roads are pot-holed, energy costs are through the roof, old folk need carers and young parents need affordable child-care? Or, if they spend on badly-run council services instead, will they prompt a local authority pull-out? The solution might be to re-open the Scottish Land Fund to pump-prime new land buy-outs and transfer some council tax receipts to self governing communities once they get up and running. I can hear the howls of protest already. 

But what’s the alternative? Do we just pat successful communities on the head and continue to fund municipal failure? Real control over real assets allows communities to transform themselves.

A thought Scottish Government ministers might consider as they tuck the Christie report on public service delivery into suitcases for light holiday reading

Can Councils Lease Common Good Properties to a Third Party?

The following does not constitute legal advice but a brief outline of the powers of councils to lease common good assets to third parties, in particular to community groups. Many of the points of law are covered in Common Good Law, by Andrew Ferguson (see references)

What is the Common Good?

All 196 former burghs of Scotland have (or should have) Common Good Funds. These are the bundle of heritable (land & buildings) and moveable (cash, artworks, chains of office etc.) property of the former burghs whose Town Councils were abolished in 1975.

Common good land may be of historic origin (forming part of the original burgh charter) or more recent origin (for example, having been gifted to the burgh in the Victorian or Edwardian era or acquired by the burgh up to 1975).

The law surrounding common good is rather opaque, consists mainly of case law, and there is minimal statutory guidance. Common Good Funds are today administered by Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, Section 15(4) of which states that “in administering [the common good] [councils shall] have regard to the interests of the inhabitants of the area to which the common good related prior to 16th May 1975.” Councils therefore administer common good assets as quasi-trustees but with wide powers of discretion.

It has been held that elected representatives have a fiduciary duty in the administration of common good funds to their constituents.

Disposal of Common Good

If a Council wishes to sell, alienate, dispose of or otherwise get rid of a common good asset there are statutory checks which may involve seeking the authority of the courts to do so. Leasing an asset for upwards of ten years has been held to be a “disposal” for these purposes.

Can a Council then lease common good property to a third party?

Yes they can but, depending on the circumstances, they may have to seek the authority of the courts. This is particularly the case where the lease is of long duration (over 10 years) and is to a third party that is not a community group but, for example, a commercial business. In such circumstances, court approval might be required and the rental agreement should be on full commercial terms so as to fulfil the Council’s fiduciary duty to the inhabitants of the burgh.

What about leasing property to community groups?

If it is agreed that common good property should or could be administered by a community group then court approval may be less imperative. The golden rule is to be transparent and enter into full and open consultation with the community. Where the lease is to a community group that is delivering benefits for the whole community, there is an argument for charging a peppercorn rent and/or a full insuring and repairing lease on the basis that the common good asset is being used for the benefit of the community. If handled appropriately, quite long leases (up to 175 years) could be granted on this basis though for leases of anything over 25 years, it may be prudent to seek court approval.

At the end of the day common good assets are the historic property of the burghs, now stewarded by local authorities on behalf of the residents of those burghs. Community benefit can be delivered via the beneficial use of a facility OR in income to the common good fund flowing from that facility’s profitable use. At one end of the spectrum are normal commercial tenants from whom should be sought the best terms to provide a respectable income to the common good fund. At the other end of the spectrum is a community association representing the whole of the community using a facility for community benefit. Here, a peppercorn rent might be appropriate and the community association can run the facility as a community business or however it sees fit for community benefit. Somewhere in between might be a lease to a community group that only provides benefits to a small part of the community and more market-oriented terms may be most appropriate here.

Advice on Best Practice

Councils have a lot of latitude in how they deal with common good. On the one hand this provides flexibility and freedom. On the other hand, though, it provides opportunities for mischief-making and possible legal challenges. Fundamentally, a council’s duty is to ensure that common good assets are a) properly accounted for, b) properly administered and managed, and c) delivering community benefits either by way of income or beneficial use.

Remember that unlike all other forms of publicly-owned assets, common good is substantially free of treasury rules, statutory frameworks and the need for Ministerial approval. Common good is the last bastion of freedom in the otherwise cluttered world of local government administration. That poses huge opportunities but also potential pitfalls.

The key to a successful working partnership between a council and a community is openness, good communications and genuine partnership. Common good assets can be leased and they can be leased to community groups. There are legal implications but most local authority solicitors should be au fait with the legal position.

If councils are open, consult widely, listen, and work closely with communities in former burghs to develop mutually beneficial solutions that respect both the spirit and the letter of the law as well as the historic traditions and role of common good, there should be few problems. Goodwill, trust and respect can deliver a wide range of successful solutions to the management of common good property.

Speak to other authorities such as Fife, Scottish Borders, Perth & Kinross and Angus which have most experience of dealing with common good. Remember that common good is not an administrative inconvenience but a valuable part of our cultural heritage to be celebrated and nurtured.

Finally, remember the Common Good Act of 1491 which remains on the statute book.

Item it is statut and ordinit that the commoune gud of all our souerane lordis burrowis within the realme be obseruit and kepit to the commoune gude of the toune and to be spendit in commoune And necessare thingis of the burght be the avise of the consale of the toune for the tyme and dekkynnis of craftis quhare thai ar

RESOURCES

Ferguson, A. (2006) Common Good Law, Avizandum, Edinburgh. 

Wightman, A. (2009) Common Good. A Quick Guide

www.scottishcommons.org/docs/commongoodguide.pdf

Wightman, A. & Perman J., (2005) Common Good Land in Scotland. A Review and Critique

www.scottishcommons.org/docs/commongood_v3.pdf

Andy Wightman

mail@andywightman.com

June 2011