Author: Calum Ross, Press and Journal

A former government minister has called on the SNP to use a recent £700 million windfall to buy-up land across Scotland to protect it from the new “green lairds”.

Peter Peacock also wants a Holyrood inquiry amid claims the super-rich are being handed a “licence to print money” through tax breaks and subsidies on offer to cut carbon emissions.

He fears these incentives are supporting a “dark market” of secret land deals at eye-watering prices, as businesses seek to greenwash their operations.

The former Labour education minister said the Scottish Government could ensure communities benefit from their local land by using the £700 million windfall raised during the recent ScotWind seabed sell-off to purchase estates across the nation.

The move would establish a “sovereign wealth fund” of land.

The new generation of landowners have been accused of pricing out community groups in the rush to offset their carbon and take advantage of government support for tree-planting and other initiatives.

Huge parts of Scotland are being sold off in this dark market with no questions asked.

In an interview with this newspaper a year ago, Mr Peacock said he was becoming increasingly concerned that the “next great Highlands and Islands land exploitation” was under way.

He noted a danger that these new patterns of external ownership would “last for the next century and more”.

Mr Peacock now says his fears are being realised, with the trend underlined in a recent report by the Scottish Land Commission.

It showed prices for estates had doubled in just the last year, that almost two-thirds of the deals were done in secret, and half of the estates were sold to corporate bodies, investment funds or charitable trusts.

Mr Peacock said it was vital that ministers and MSPs acted quickly to halt the trend.

“This dark market for land in Scotland evades transparency and operates within a shadowy world of high value individuals and corporations,” he said.

“Prices being paid for land are eye watering and may be beyond the reach of local people even if they knew the land was available for sale.

Peter Peacock when he was education minister

“This is possible because of a completely unregulated market for land sales in Scotland.

“It seems clear this is a dysfunctional, failed and still failing land market which benefits only the super-rich.

“Today it provides what appears to be a licence to print money underwritten by the public purse of land subsidies and tax breaks.

“Huge parts of Scotland are being sold off in this dark market with no questions asked.”

Mr Peacock, who was a Highlands and Islands MSP from 1999 to 2011, called for the Scottish Parliament to order an urgent inquiry into how the market has been operating and how to protect the public interest.

He also urged ministers to take action, including through the purchase of land in the national interest, in order that “the people of Scotland and not just wealthy private investors or individuals take all the benefits”.

Pointing to the revenues from the recent ScotWind auction, he said: “The huge receipts coming as a windfall from the sale of seabed leases from off-shore wind could be largely used to secure the land we need as a country to meet our climate and carbon sequestration requirements.

“This could be viewed as a sovereign wealth fund being held in the form of land.

“Communities could be partners in a national endeavour using the experience of community ownership to deliver multiple local and national benefits.

“There is an honourable tradition of state backed land purchases from the early part of the last century for the creation of crofts and for the forest plantations to meet national priorities.

“Current times demand a similar approach.”

The ScotWind auction has become increasingly controversial in recent weeks.

It’s been claimed the seabed plots for major offshore wind projects were sold off on the cheap.

Land Reform Minister Màiri McAllan said last year that the government was ready to seize an “immediate window of opportunity” to ensure communities benefit from a boom in land values created by green lairds.

SLC chief executive Hamish Trench has recently spoken about the “option” of establishing community wealth funds, as well as other potential proposals.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We must ensure equitable sharing of the benefits of this investment with local communities and wider society.

“We are committed to ensuring a values-led, high-integrity market for responsible private investment in Scotland’s land and natural assets.

“That is why we have recently published a set of Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital, and we have also committed to doubling the Scottish Land Fund by the end of this parliamentary session.”

He added that transparency in land ownership and decision-making was “crucial” in helping communities have more say over their local area, highlighting a newly-launched Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI).

“This new register, which complements our existing Land Register, will enable local communities to better access information about who owns and decides about land in their area,” he said.

“Our new Land Reform Bill, which we will bring forward over the course of this parliament, will build on our land reform measures to date and will further tackle Scotland’s historically iniquitous patterns of land ownership – including by tackling problematic scale and concentration of ownership.

“ScotWind will deliver around £700 million in revenues to the public purse for the initial awards alone and has the potential to deliver billions more in rental revenues once projects become operational, to be invested for the benefit of the people of Scotland

Author: Anna Fowlie, SCVO

Ahead of a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the impact of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund on Scotland, SCVO chief executive Anna Fowlie looks at what we can expect…

Last week, the UK Government launched its long-awaited UK Shared Prosperity Fund prospectus. With the inevitable accompanying fanfare and grumbles. But what does it mean for us in Scotland’s voluntary sector? 

What I was hoping for: 

• At least as much funding as was allocated to Scotland through European Structural Funds. 

• A much better fund management system than the one used for ESF at the moment.  
• Parity of esteem for the sector at national and local levels in both strategic design and delivery.  
• Respect for the devolution settlement and alignment with relevant Scottish Government strategies/funding streams.  

Does it deliver on any of those? Let’s start at the bottom and work our way back.  

When the Internal Market Act became law, it was evident that devolution had been blurred, some would say undermined. For the first time since 1999, Westminster had taken powers to act on devolved matters. That shift is explicitly referred to in the UKSPF prospectus. The fact it comes with £s attached makes it hard to argue with, but it feels uncomfortable. 

The document also refers several times to working closely with devolved administrations. Yet I’ve seen little evidence of a willingness to work together constructively on either side. And I can see little if any alignment of economic or other strategies. However, Scottish Ministers’ outrage at funds going straight to local decision-making feels disingenuous when community empowerment is a key strand of Scottish policy.  A lack of coherence is bad enough, but active politicisation serves no one well.  

So what about parity of esteem for our sector? When colleagues from third sector interfaces and I met with UK Ministers recently, we asked for collaboration with the sector to be mandatory for local or regional partnerships developing investment plans and for the sector to have a clear role in delivery. The final version doesn’t go that far but it does strongly encourage engagement with the third sector. If Regional Economic Partnerships are the vehicle of choice, there’s a way to go achieving that in most parts of the country.  

The mechanics of how funds will be managed remains opaque. There are promises of sweeping away bureaucracy and recognition that traditional approaches to grant-making or commissioning are too cumbersome for many voluntary organisations. To be honest on the administration fees offered, whoever holds the pot won’t be able to afford to do anything complex. But if there’s one thing we can rely on from the public sector, it’s disproportionate, risk averse processes. I’m keen to be proved wrong.  

Finally, to the vexed topic of the amount of money allocated to Scotland. SCVO has argued for a long time that successor funding should be based on the amount of European funding allocated to Scotland, not what’s actually been spent. That’s because Scotland’s recent record on drawing down its rightful share is woeful. Hence the much smaller allocation to Scotland than to Wales, where they seem to know what they’re doing. Of course, it depends what lens you look through. It appears that by year 3, and if you include other funds like Levelling Up, Scotland might not come out of it too badly. One thing’s for sure, real comparative figures will be hard to pin down, surrounded as they are by the smoke and mirrors of political spin from Westminster and Holyrood.  

There’s much to be welcomed in the UKSF prospectus, particularly multi-year funding. It could offer opportunities for our sector. What we need to see now is an inclusive approach from the regional/local partnerships, a consistent, proportionate management system and Scottish and UK Governments actually talking to each other to achieve what’s best for Scotland, not what best advances the union or independence.   

Author: David Francis Director, Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland

ROBERT Mochrie’s piece on a modern, interactive Statistical Account of Scotland based on local authority wards struck a chord (Here’s a way for Scotland to plan how to meets its people’s needs, Jan 5). At Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland we have been developing a similar approach, but based on the idea of a “creative account” of Scotland rather than a statistical one.

We call this approach The People’s Parish, which brings together artists and people in local communities to reflect on the places where they live. Our starting point is people’s traditions and the back story of their places. From place we connect community, local history, folklore and creativity, making projects that reflect how communities see themselves and how they want to present themselves to the world. After working with an artist in the medium of their choice to make the creative work, communities’ contributions will be gathered to give a people’s artistic account of Scotland in the 21st century. Our starting points, like the old Statistical Account, are the civil parishes, the boundaries of which are still in use in every locality across Scotland.

But at the end of the day, boundaries are just lines on a map, and as the distinguished American folklorist Henry Glassie put it, “boundaries are less important than centres”, the places where people form associations, social affinities.

The parish boundary nonetheless provides a useful starting point, and a marker against which to gauge shifts in settlement, the reconfiguration of communities and how the members of those communities orient and re-orient themselves.

Our starting point is an acknowledgement that the world is in a state of profound crisis – but that, by focusing on the local, digging where we stand, we have the immediate means to start addressing that crisis.

We need, among other things, a revived and enriched civic life, flourishing communities. What characterises a flourishing community? Civic engagement, certainly, good health, social justice (equality, distribution of wealth, power, privilege), respectful, tolerant relationships with nature and each other, bound together by a sense of place: a connection with what makes a place different from another – local details, landmarks, geology and geography, resources (the natural dimension).

In order to flourish in the present and in the future, communities also need a relationship with their past, their collective memory, a connection with the “layering” of a place – of what has happened in the place, and how the resonances of past events persist into the present. In addition, the story of a place has to take account of the ebb and flow of new members of communities, and what their own stories bring. Engagement, connections, relationships, sense of place – all of these are important components of well-being.

A well-being economy goes beyond GDP as a measure of success. It is one in which economic activity – work (production), trading (distribution), consumption – is directed towards a culture which values human flourishing: where people have positive feelings about life, are engaged with their community and wider society, have positive social relationships, find meaning in their life, and have a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment.

People find meaning in many different ways. Our job at TRACS is help people and communities find meaning through connection with vernacular artistic traditions, particularly in the fields of music, dance, storytelling and craft, the so-called “intangible cultural heritage”. To that end we are currently working, through the Scottish Government’s Culture Collective initiative, in nine communities across Scotland – in housing schemes, in small towns and in rural areas – to explore these ideas. The renewal of the social and civil fabric is both goal and means, and it is urgent. We hope that our work in exploring the stories of places and their meaning for the people who live in them will be a contribution to that.

Author: Northton Heritage Trust

A short film with more about Seallam!

Seallam! Hebrides People Visitor Centre is a unique project based in the Isle of Harris, Western Isles (Outer Hebrides) which celebrates the culture and heritage of the people through their genealogical record, storytelling and history. It is owned by the community – Northton Heritage Trust (NHT), a charitable community benefit society (No 8676) which is now planning an exciting future for the project as a major visitor and learning destination celebrating the rich history of this island archipelago.

Bill and Chris Lawson began work developing the records over 40 years ago and they donated their life’s work to the Trust some 20 years ago when funding was secured to build the current visitor centre. Chris is sadly no longer with us, and Bill, at 84 years of age is handing over the reins to the community (Trust) to develop and protect their legacy and to provide a much-needed visitor and learning facility in south Harris.

Northton Heritage Trust (NHT) has prepared ambitious plans to bring all the land and buildings into community ownership (it already owns the centre and car park) and to develop them to enhance exhibition space, provide student accommodation and research facilities to create more local employment and stimulate local economic development.

This will be carried out in two phases:

• Phase one which will see all the remaining land and buildings brought into ownership of the Trust.
• Phase two which will see development of these assets to provide new exhibition space, student and learning accommodation, a café and Seallam! Outdoors signposting the remarkable geography and geology of the area as part of Northton Bay a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The Trust is keen to engage both its local community (Isle of Harris) and its wider community (the rest of the world with an interest or heritage in the islands) in this exciting development and is running a community share offer to enable supporters of the project to contribute to delivery of phase one works- bringing the land and buildings into community ownership and finalising the plans for the second phase which will see the buildings extended.

Author: Scottish Government

Summary of recommendations

The working group recommends that:

1. The Scottish Government should work with stakeholders to establish a new “Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute” – a high-profile independent body that draws on a wide range of resources to develop public interest journalism for Scotland, co-ordinating new and existing initiatives and strategically administering grant funding to support a diverse, pluralistic and sustainable Scottish public interest media sector.
2. The Scottish Government and OSCR, the Scottish charity regulator, should take steps to enable non-profit public interest news providers to register as charities; and the Scottish Government should also create an alternative legal status, with similar tax benefits to charitable status, for other non-profit public interest news providers.
3. The Scottish Government should embed media literacy in the school curriculum, and launch a voucher scheme for young people aged 15-19 to access public interest journalism free of charge.
4. The Scottish Government should examine the feasibility of introducing provisions like those in the 2003 Land Reform (Scotland) Act, to give community groups the scope to take over a local news publication that is otherwise in danger of closing.
5. Audit Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute (SPIJI), should conduct an annual audit of advertising and marketing investment by the Scottish Government and public bodies, to include a measurement of the impact of this expenditure on the health of the Scottish news publishing landscape; and the Scottish Government should invest no less than 25% of its central advertising and marketing budget with public interest news providers.
6. Audit Scotland, in partnership with SPIJI, should conduct an annual audit of public notices; and the Scottish Government should improve the accessibility of public notices and strengthen the ties with public interest journalism, and issue best practice guidelines for local authorities and other public bodies to ensure that they promote public notices to those who have an interest in the information.
7. The Scottish Government should work with the UK Government to ensure that the new Digital Markets Unit enables public interest news providers of all shapes and sizes to thrive in the digital economy; and the Scottish Government should encourage big tech companies to support the establishment of SPIJI.
8. The Scottish Government should engage with the UK Government to create tax incentives for businesses to advertise with public interest news providers.

We are confident that there is a very strong appetite for quality public interest journalism in Scotland and that the recommendations in this report will go a long way to sustaining the independent, quality media landscape Scotland has always enjoyed and should continue to enjoy in the future.

Wherever possible, our proposals have not included legislation, both because of the need for expediency and because we recognise that the separation of the “fourth estate” from government is essential to any system of democratic scrutiny.

Our recommendations are explained in detail in the following sections. First, we explain what we mean by public interest journalism, and then we put the recommendations into context by setting out the background to this report.

Author: Community Land Scotland

Community Land Scotland welcomes publication of the Rural Land Market Insights Report by the Scottish Land Commission.  The report highlights factors driving changes to Scotland’s largely unregulated and increasingly overheated rural land market and raises fundamental questions about who benefits from land-use associated with Scotland’s uniquely concentrated pattern of rural land ownership.

It is deeply concerning that the Scottish Government’s commitments to land reform, community wealth building and a just transition to net zero risk being undermined by soaring rural land values and the cloak of secrecy obscuring the majority of estate sales and a substantial proportion of other rural land sales, which occur ‘off-market’.

As the cost of living crisis deepens it is imperative that aspiring community landowners are given every opportunity to participate in the rural land market to put the principles of community wealth building into practice by building affordable, energy efficient homes, providing secure, sustainable employment, and supporting local businesses, as so many existing community landowners do.

The massive increases in rural land prices documented in the Land Commission’s report effectively deny communities the opportunity to buy land for their own sustainability on the increasingly rare occasions when sales are publicised on the open market in the first place.   Given the crucial importance of land as an engine for securing the sustainability of our rural communities and for delivering on Scotland’s climate targets in a socially just way, we cannot see how leaving the land market to its own devices advances these twin objectives.

Community land Scotland is therefore calling on the Scottish Government to introduce new land reform legislation as a matter of urgency to help correct the land market failures that the Land Commission’s report has so comprehensively uncovered.

Dr Calum MacLeod, Community Land Scotland’s Policy Director said:

“At a time when the escalating cost of living crisis is exacerbating rural poverty there is something fundamentally wrong with the idea that great swathes of rural Scotland can be secretly traded as a luxury lifestyle choice, a credit on a corporation’s carbon ledger or a speculative hedge fund investment.  The Scottish Government needs to urgently accelerate introduction of land reform legislation regulating secret ‘off-market’ land sales, applying public interest tests on significant land transfers and current landholdings, and making it easier to use existing community rights to buy, or risk our rural communities being left behind as an increasingly supercharged and exclusionary rural land market fast disappears over the horizon.”

Author: Jim Hunter, Press and Journal

Speaking as campaigning in Scotland’s local elections was getting underway, retiring Skye councillor John Gordon said that islanders, in his experience, are increasingly in favour of Highland Council – presently in charge of an area stretching from Ardnamurchan to Caithness – being broken up into smaller units.

Days later, it was revealed that, when polling day comes round on May 5, several parts of the north will have no elections – candidates having already been returned unopposed.

Like Mr Gordon’s comments, this lack of folk prepared to stand for office is a pointer to local government in Scotland being in a far from healthy state.

A key cause, surely, is one that Mr Gordon highlights in the case of Skye. Whatever else may be said about our local authorities, it’s an inescapable fact that they aren’t very local.

Highland Council’s Inverness headquarters is over 100 miles by (often not very good) road from many of the communities the council is meant to serve. And, though distances of that sort aren’t replicated elsewhere, there are few, if any, places in Scotland where local government is felt to be locally rooted, locally responsive, locally in charge.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Can we do it like the Italians?

An alternative approach is highlighted by a video that went viral internationally in the early weeks of the pandemic. Compiled from phone footage shot in towns and villages across Italy, it’s illustrative of the tactics used by Italian mayors looking to enforce the country’s first lockdown.

These tactics, in some instances, were nothing if not brutal. Lockdown-breaking individuals are called idiots and worse. People attempting to argue that they need to visit their hairdresser are told that fancy hairstyles don’t matter much to the dead.

But what’s striking from a Scottish perspective is that all sorts of Italian communities, big or small, rural or urban, have elected officials who wield real power and who are sufficiently recognisable and authoritative to be able to command instant attention.

In all of Scotland, we have just 32 councils. Italy, in contrast, has more than 8,000 communes. Each commune has an elected council of between 15 and 80 members. And each council has a mayor.

Communes run all sorts of public services. They’re also entitled to have their own police forces. And each one of the country’s mayors – irrespective of whether they’re in charge of a thinly-populated district in the Apennines or a major centre like Milan – is equipped, in principle at any rate, with the same suite of powers.

Scotland, not all that long ago, had its own equivalents of Italian mayors. We called them provosts. They, too, were figures of some local substance. And, as in Italy, they headed up the locally-elected councils that ran, not just cities such as Aberdeen, Edinburgh or Glasgow, but numerous small towns like Banchory, Inverurie, Banff, Forres, Stornoway, Oban, Dingwall, Dornoch, Wick and Thurso.

This entire structure, along with smaller county councils like Sutherland and Banffshire, was swept away in the 1970s – usually in the name of a cost-effectiveness that, in practice, has proved difficult, if not impossible, to deliver.

We take away local power rather than strengthen it

Might it be time for some updated version of the older set-up to be restored – one that would bring power closer to people while giving focus and identity to communities where these things are all too often missing?

Why this should be done is set out in some detail, as it happens, in a recently-issued white paper from the UK Government – the white paper that makes the case for what Conservative ministers call “levelling up”.

National politicians have, for decades now, been guilty of taking away, rather than strengthening, the powers and responsibilities of local government

Britain, the white paper recognises, “is one of the most centralised countries in the industrialised world”. This, the white paper continues, needs changing, in order to “restore a sense of community, local pride and belonging in those places where they have been lost”.

That means “empowering greater numbers of local leaders” in order to provide “the general public” with “greater control” – to be achieved “by more decisions that shape their local area being taken closer to home”.

These are laudable ambitions. But there’s no very strong reason to think they’ll be acted on with any urgency.

Whether in London or Edinburgh, and irrespective of which political party has been in charge, national politicians have, for decades now, been guilty of taking away, rather than strengthening, the powers and responsibilities of local government.

Sadly, Skye’s not likely to have its own elected authority, nor are Banchory or Banff likely to get back their town councils and provosts, any time soon.

Author: Irish Government

The Irish Government has today launched a new and pioneering pilot scheme to support artists and creative arts workers. The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme will examine, over a 3 year period, the impact of a basic income on artists and creative arts workers. Payments of €325 per week will be made to 2,000 eligible artists and creative arts workers who will be selected at random and invited to take part. The scheme will open for applications on 12 April.

The scheme was launched by the Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin’s Temple Bar today. It is recognition, at government level, of the important role of the arts in Irish society. It also places a value on the time spent developing a creative practice and producing art. The main objective of the scheme is to address the financial instability faced by many working in the arts.

A basic income for the arts was the number one recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce Life Worth Living Report which was set up by Minister Catherine Martin in 2020 to examine how the sector could adapt and recover from the unprecedented damage arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said:

“Government is committed to supporting the arts and this initiative has the potential to be truly transformative in how Ireland supports the arts in the future. Ireland’s arts and culture in all its distinctiveness and variety is the well-spring of our identity as a people and is internationally recognised. The Basic Income for the Arts is a unique opportunity for us to support our artists and creatives in the sector and ensure that the arts thrive into the future.”

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said:

“This is a really important day for the creative arts in Ireland. Our country is world-famous for its creative industries, so it’s vital that we provide the right environment to allow artists to develop, flourish and focus on on their work. Back in 2017, as Minister for Social Protection I made it easier for self-employed creative professionals to access social welfare. Over the years we have greatly expanded the range of social insurance benefits that artists and other self-employed people benefit from. I’m very pleased that the government can now launch this pilot scheme for a basic income grant for artists and creative professionals. As an artist or creator, it can take time to get established, to build up a portfolio and develop a reputation. Even then, income can be erratic or volatile. This new grant will create a floor and a safety net for artists. I am very interested to know what we will learn from this pilot.”

Minister Catherine Martin said:

“This announcement heralds a new era for the arts in Ireland. As our artists and creative professionals emerge from the devastating impact of the pandemic, the government is committed to providing an unprecedented level of support as they seek to rebuild their livelihoods. I want the arts not just to recover, but to flourish. That is why I secured funding to help realise this scheme, which was a key priority for me in the Budget.”

Clare Duignan, Chairperson of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce said:

“As Chair of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce I am very pleased to see the launch of the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme today. This was the Taskforce’s number one recommendation, something on which the members unanimously agreed; we believe that the scheme has the potential to be genuinely transformative in terms of the sustainability of the sector.”

Minister Martin stressed that stakeholder engagement has been central to her in the development of this policy initiative. A stakeholder consultation forum was held on the issue in December 2021 at which over 150 participants from 50 representative and resource organisations in the arts and culture sector attended. In January 2022, the department also conducted a public consultation on the issue.

Minister Martin added:

“This pilot scheme represents a ground-breaking opportunity for us to explore how the role of the artist in Irish society can be protected and nurtured so we can continue to be inspired by great art for generations to come.”

The scheme will open for applications on Tuesday, 12 April and close on Thursday, 12 May 2022.

See information on the eligibility criteria and how to apply for the pilot scheme.

Key points of the scheme

Overall, BIA aims to:

• pilot a sector specific support for the arts, in the form of a basic income, to recognise the value of time spent on creative practice and for arts workers who make a key contribution to the creative production process;
• enable artists and creative arts workers to focus on artistic production/practice without having to enter into employment in other sectors to sustain themselves;
• support participants to develop their practice by providing income during periods when practice and portfolio are being developed;
• give recognition to the value of the arts and the role of creative practice in Irish society; and
• minimise the loss of skill and experience from the arts sector

2,000 recipients will be randomly selected from the pool of eligible applicants.

They will receive the payment – set at €325 per week – paid on a monthly basis.

It will be a non-competitive process, therefore once a person satisfies the eligibility criteria they will be included in a randomised selection process.

Unsuccessful but eligible applicants will be invited to participate in a control group to facilitate a comprehensive ex post appraisal of the pilot. This will help evaluate the impact of the payment by comparing outcome for those who received the payment with a group of peers who were not paid the basic income over the same period.

Similar to most other income the payment will be taxable but the amount of taxation paid will depend on an individual’s personal circumstances.

Recipients of the Basic Income are entitled to earn additional income, which would also be reckonable for the purposes of income tax.

Eligibility will be based on the definition of the arts as contained in the Arts Act 2003; ““arts” means any creative or interpretative expression (whether traditional or contemporary) in whatever form, and includes, in particular, visual arts, theatre, literature, music, dance, opera, film, circus and architecture, and includes any medium when used for those purposes”.

A creative arts worker is someone who has a creative practice and whose creative work makes a key contribution to the production, interpretation or exhibition of the arts. “Arts” means any creative or interpretative expression (whether traditional or contemporary) in whatever form, and includes, in particular, visual arts, theatre, literature, music, dance, opera, film, circus and architecture, and includes any medium when used for those purposes.

Author: Plunkett Foundation

A half day event for all Scottish community pub groups, whether just starting out or open and trading.

Join Plunkett Foundation for this free, informal event to meet other community pub groups, share ideas, network and learn about the journey of the Black Bull in Gartmore which was purchased by its local community in 2019 and today is at the heart of village life.

You can attend the event in person, there is plenty of free parking at the pub, or virtually. This is the place to register to attend in person, or if you want to attend virtually please go to the separate listing here to register and receive the Zoom link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/study-visit-to-the-black-bull-gartmore-online-registration-tickets-311641537227

The pub’s website is here: www.blackbullgartmore.com

About the day

The event will be led by Peter Sunderland, Plunkett business adviser and Gartmore resident, who has been heavily involved not only with the Black Bull Hub and Pub, but also in the village’s community shop, one of the oldest community shops in Scotland.

The day will include a tour of the Black Bull, which offers accommodation as well as food and drink options, a talk about the pub’s journey, a tasty light lunch, advice on making the transition from ‘concept’ to ‘trading’ and a Q&A session. Plunkett staff will be on hand.

We look forward to meeting you there!

Author: Libby Brooks, The Guardian

Judy Murray has won an 8 year battle to build a £40m tennis and golf complex on the outskirts of Dunblane that she says will stand as a fitting legacy for her sons, tennis stars Andy and Jamie.

But local campaigners and community councillors have vowed to continue their fight to prevent building on the green belt land, Park of Keir.

Earlier this week the Scottish government overturned a previous ruling by Stirling council, which had rejected the plans after more than 1,000 objections. Opponents argued that the complex – which will include 19 luxury homes, an 18-hole golf course and a four-star hotel – would destroy the rolling landscape and native woodland of Park of Keir.

Following an appeal and public local inquiry, Scottish ministers called the application in for review by the government-appointed reporter Timothy Brian. The ministers’ decision notice stated the benefits of the proposed scheme were sufficient to outweigh the loss of green belt land, concluding the tennis and golf centre in particular “would make an important contribution to the aim of increasing participation in both sports while providing facilities for the community. There will also be economic benefits, to the local area and more widely.”

Murray welcomed the decision. “We passionately believe that what we will create will not only serve as a legacy to the achievements of Jamie and Andy, but will be an important community asset that allows people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to enjoy for generations to come,” she said.

But the Scottish Green MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Mark Ruskell, said the decision had left him feeling “gutted”.

“This is a decision that will destroy the historic landscape of Park of Keir that has existed for centuries,” he said.

Ruskell believes the developers’ vision has little to do with the Murray tennis legacy. “It’s about securing an exclusive development of rural mansions for the property developer who is hiding behind celebrities,” he said.

The partnership, which includes Murray, golfer Colin Montgomerie and local developers the King Group, argue the park is the ideal location to create “grassroots facilities which will make tennis, golf and many other sports accessible to all”.

As well as creating a Sir Andy Murray Museum, the site will include a 61-hectare (150-acre) community park with woodland walks, a children’s adventure playground and an all-weather pitch for five-a-side football.

In a statement, Dunblane community council said the decision “ignores widespread local concerns and makes a mockery of the planning process”.

Its chair, David Prescott, added: “This has taken eight years to get to the grant of planning in principle, which is only a step along the way. This has a long way to go yet.”