Author: Barry MacCarthy, New Start

The biggest challenge ahead for the new asset transfer unit is to persuade councils in England that handing over disused public buildings to communities will help them achieve their objectives, according to Hazel Blears.
The communities minister told New Start asset transfer ‘must be connected with what people care about like jobs and homes and support for people in their neighbourhoods’.

Her comments came after she announced the Development Trusts Association (DTA) would lead the unit with support from the Local Government Association and national federation Community Matters.

The unit, which was first announced in the community empowerment white paper in July, will provide advice to residents and councils by drawing on lessons learned from the successful transfer of 20 buildings to local organisations.

Ms Blears told delegates at the DTA’s annual conference in Leeds this week that she expected the scheme to accelerate asset transfer once it is up and running in January.
She said the government was supporting 60 local authorities that are hoping to transfer assets to communities over the next two years.

‘Making a success of asset transfer is about a long-term relationship between local authorities and community organisations. It’s about a hard-headed business model that works.’

But she added that asset transfer was not the answer to every problem and that councils sometimes needed to sell land to maximise their receipts.

DTA director Steve Wyler said the association was working with communities to help them recognise the difference between public assets that would be a liability and those that could be acquired to benefit the community.

Author: Marilyn Murray, Rannoch, Perthshire. – The Herald, Letters to Editor

Community resilience? More like dereliction of duty in Rannoch

A recent article in the Herald by Professor Allyson Pollock demonstrates conclusively that, despite Scottish Government promises to keep primary medicine, and particularly GP practice, within the public domain, the very opposite is being allowed to happen in remote and rural areas of Scotland to the detriment of those who live there.

Kinloch Rannoch is a case in point. A fully equipped, fully manned medical centre is positioned in the village to serve the needs of this remote and rural community, along with a local school and a local fire station. But inexplicably the local GP practice was allowed to opt out of providing any out-of-hours emergency service and since then, because the Rannoch area is beyond ambulance cover within acceptable time limits from either Pitlochry or Aberfeldy, lives have on a number of occasions been put at risk. The present setup, with none of the local GPs being prepared to give emergency cover, is palpably unsafe and cannot continue.

But what does the local health board propose? The chairman has stated that “local access to an emergency care service does not necessarily have to be provided by a GP on call 24 hours a day”, and he wants instead to train up first-aiders to come out at nights and over entire weekends instead of doctors. He calls this “community resilience”! People in Rannoch call this dereliction of professional duty.

As Professor Pollock points out, this so-called “First Responder” model, which is being specifically proposed to replace the GPs in Rannoch, is both a breach of NHS’s core principle of continuity of care and a denial of the human rights and legitimate expectation of the resident population to all-round GP care which is provided elsewhere in the Highlands and islands of Scotland. Rannoch should be no different.

Fortunately, Rannoch residents have refused to accept an inadequate substitute for their GPs and have stated so in packed protest meetings.

Professor Pollock’s intervention is welcome, but Nicola Sturgeon must now intervene to prevent the residents of Rannoch being fobbed off with a third-world medical service that is unacceptable to them.

Author: LPL

BLUE Toon Community Radio is seeking volunteers to help get the new station up and running in Peterhead.

A small and enthusiastic group of individuals in Peterhead recently formed a steering committee to promote the station, which is set to service listeners within a 50 mile radius of the town.

The group is looking to make programmes covering a wide
range of rural, cultural, health, economic and community issues and to promote knowledge of local heritage and local community issues.

Promoting community inclusiveness and involving people from all sections of the local population would also be a key objective.

In addition the group will recruit and train volunteers to make and present programmes and staff the station. It is a particular aim to work in partnership with local schools and involve young folk in the making and presenting of local programmes.

A very broad range of music is likely be broadcast to cater for all ages and tastes and advertising slots will be available for local businesses, individuals and groups.

John Cropley of the steering committee, told the Buchanie: “This is an exciting and challenging opportunity for lots of people from Peterhead and the surrounding area to become involved in creating, shaping and developing a truly local radio station with local content produced and delivered by local people.

“All kinds of knowledge, expertise and skills, not only presenters and creators of programmes, are needed to get the station up and running and then to keep it on air. Nearly everyone will have something to offer whether it is a programme idea, a couple of hours a week doing office work, or maybe a spot of cleaning.

“Lets make this germ of an idea take root, grow strongly and blossom into a flourishing radio station of which all in Peterhead and the surrounding area can be proud. This can happen only if local people and groups get involved, buy into it and promote the project and support it once the station is operational.”

To hear more about the project, or to offer your skills or help, email Mr Cropley on johncropley@btinternet.com or call him on (01779) 477041.

Author: LPL

HUNDREDS of threatened rural churches could be “recycled” and brought into active use by local communities, a major conference heard yesterday.

The Church Buildings Renewal Trust is investigating ways in which out-of-use, and often decaying churches can be converted and used as community facilities.

It is the first time that the trust, which was founded in 1994 by the Church of Scotland to consider how to deal with its under-threat and under-used buildings and those of other denominations, has turned its attention to the fate of Scotland’s rural churches, of which it estimates there are several hundred under threat.

Yesterday’s conference, entitled The Use and Re-use of Rural Church Buildings held at St Andrew’s in the Square in Glasgow, heard some “provocative” proposals for adapting church buildings so they can be used by the public in ways other than as places of worship.

One of the proposals is to implement sharing arrangements in which churches would be used to house its congregations but put to other community use during the week.

Tim Parker, director of CBRT and depute secretary of the Church of Scotland General Trustees, said: “All denominations have a large number of buildings and they are not able to support them all, so some have to go to the wall and we are trying to find new uses for them.
“But we also have church buildings which are only used for a couple of days during the week so the idea is to try to get other users involved so that the community can come to an arrangement where they can use the church on other days.
“Perhaps this can raise money to go back towards maintaining the church.”

It included various case studies from churches across Scotland which demonstrated how out-of-use buildings could be recycled to the benefit of the community and how new buildings could be purpose built with both the needs of church congregations and the wider community in mind.
The trust estimates that several hundred church buildings of all denominations could be under threat.

It is the first time that the annual CBRT conference has specifically set out to address the issues affecting out-of-use or under-used buildings in rural areas. The voluntary-run Trust has thus far operated in Glasgow only but it is hoped that it will expand to become a national operation.

David Martin, chairman of CBRT said: “Ultimately all church buildings are under threat and yet ultimately they are all also all a great opportunity. In Glasgow we’ve recycled about 60 church buildings since the Second World War. We have to demonstrate the value of a church to the community in order to persuade the funders that it is a worthwhile investment.”

He said that disused churches had been converted into community centres, some of which retain worship services on a Sunday, theatres, workshops, offices and even domestic properties.

Mr Martin added: “Abandoned churches can’t serve the community but with a bit of imagination they can be recycled. Churches are going to have to broaden their base. The church as a building and an institution must engage more with the community it’s trying to serve.
The community is not there to serve the church, the church is there to serve the community.”

The CBRT conference was aimed at stimulating ideas which those attending could take back to their congregations.

The Barony Church in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire, is to be converted and given a new lease of life. The building, which has lain empty and unused as a place of worship for 30 years, is to become an exhibition centre in the latest of a series of projects which have benefited the area.
The West Kilbride Community Initiative Ltd, a charity established in 1998, has helped to take a village in decline and turn it around, creating Craft Town Scotland.
By encouraging skilled craftspeople to take over derelict shops they were able to regenerate the town to the extent that in 2006 the Craft Town Project won the Enterprising Britain competition. It is hoped that the latest project will help attract the mass of visitors needed to ensure that the venture is sustainable, successful and saves a recognisable part of the local skyline.
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Angus Kerr, a retired architect, who has been closely involved in the planned Barony Arts Centre project said: “We hope to see more visitors which will help our local rural economy and to encourage more crafts people. It will provide space for a series of artists in residence who will carry out teaching and demonstrations – education is very much part of the project – and we’ll save a very important listed church building.”

Author: Harris Beider, The Guardian

Empowerment is about giving someone authority to act and is important because we need to ensure that people have a choice and can affect change. America and the UK share similar problems in housing supply; segregation by race and class and reviving cities in socio-economic decline, but the responses are different.

UK policy is driven by national government focusing on macro policy issues – such as community cohesion – and emphasising the importance of housing quality. The change agents are councils and housing associations. American policy is driven by local government. The focus is on increasing opportunities for home ownership, tackling poverty through regeneration initiatives rather than acknowledging race, and housing quality is not regarded as a problem. The change agents include public housing authorities, community development corporations and private sector developers, who work on barely 5% of the housing stock.

Screening policies

On a recent fact-finding trip to the US, I was amazed at the scale of change, the will to make this work and the impact on communities. However, I was also appalled by how many people were left out by housing policies with no welfare state to pick them up.

Tenant screening is an interesting area of American policy. Public housing authorities and developers work with community activists to decide which tenants access redeveloped public housing. There is competition for places. To qualify, people have to work, be addiction-free and need to support their children through school. New developments are full of people who want to “get on” and success is almost guaranteed given the tenant profile.

But what about those who are rejected? As American housing professionals told me, “they would have come to their own solutions”. Some might see screening as ultimate tenant empowerment but it can also exclude. Some American public housing authorities also stipulate that tenants have a maximum of three to five years in social housing, so they do not become stuck in sub-standard housing. The goal is self-sufficiency in home ownership. Redeveloped social housing is regarded as a scarce resource rather than a “pile it high, sell it cheap” alternative to private sector provision.

Better support

In addition, tenant counselling and support far surpasses our ad hoc schemes. People are given intensive, one-to-one support on debt, drugs, finding schools, health care and gaining independence. It is about unlocking the potential of every household and seeing people as an asset rather than a liability. This could be replicated in the UK.

We need to accept that housing estates symbolise places that many people do not want to live in. There needs to be a step change in creating opportunities for tenants through supporting more people into jobs, education and training and perhaps reviewing tenancy every five years.

The legacy of our welfare state, for all its faults, should be cherished. But we need to integrate America’s entrepreneurial drive and produce diversity and focus on the tenant as a customer. Tenants should be seen less as an amorphous, problematic group on the fringes of society and more as people who can help enrich communities. We have a long way to go before this happens, but tenant empowerment is an essential building block for sustainable communities.

Author: LPL

Proposals for a £1.3m development in the heart of Dunblane have been thrown into the public arena.

Dunblane Development Trust is keen to acquire a gap site in the High Street in which a building, designed to make a positive impact on local economy, could be created.

And local residents are now invited to share their views on the best way forward.

Project director David Gill said the whole project, if given the go-ahead, will cost an estimated £1.3m.

Most of the cash for the ambitious project would be supported by grant funding and public contribution.

It would rise three and a half storeys from the High Street and, as it dropped down at the back, rise five and a half storeys behind.

David told the Allanwater News: “We would like to see a mix of restaurants, office space, retail, affordable housing and lease storage space on site.

“As the building directly opposite is set back from the road, we would also set the new building back and, effectively, create a mini urban square.”

He explained that, should it be both with the new building and neighbouring businesses, the Trust would aim to lay out tables and chairs to compliment the bistro/restaurant facilities.

This would bring a touch of the continent, and cafe culture, right into the centre of Dunblane.

This popular style of ‘cafe culture’ is already highly popular in communities throughout Scotland, including major cities and neighbouring Bridge of Allan.

David assured residents, however, that the community would be fully consulted on the basis of the Trust acquiring the gap site.

The Trust has also earmarked funding from the Big Lottery Fund’s Growing Community Assets scheme, which is there to help local communities become stronger and more sustainable by obtaining or developing assets, in both urban and rural communities.

The Fund actively supports community-led regeneration, providing quality services and amenities that reflect the needs of the community.

It is hoped this support will mean more people will use and enjoy those assets.

There is also the thinking that exciting new projects like this will help create more community income and substantially boost local employment prospects.

The plans also marry with the current government drive to encourage communities to take responsibility for their own prosperity.

David went on:“The idea behind the Big Lottery funding is to encourage communities to buy buildings and areas that they can use to generate revenue that can then be ploughed back into the community.

“It is basically the first step to get the snowball rolling. If a community has a tangible asset, such as this new proposed building, then it can also then borrow against it to invest in other projects.”

Information boards will be erected at the High Street gap site tomorrow (Friday), where information on the proposals and full contact details for the Trust will be on view.

Meantime, anyone who would like to comment on the proposals is invited to do so in writing by contacting David at Dunblane Development Trust, Project Director, Braeport Centre, Braeport, Dunblane, FK15 0AT or by emailing Jlndgill@aol.com.

Author: LPL

Argyll and Bute Council appreciate the value of asset transfer

Two case studies:

The Kilmory Home Farm Community Project (KHFCP) has ambitious plans for the restoration of the Kilmory Home Farm (described in a council report as “an ignored heritage asset”) on the historic Kilmory Estate.

The group has welcomed support from Argyll and Bute councillors at a meeting of the Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands (MAKI) area committee last week. Councillors voted to recommend to Argyll and Bute Council’s executive that the property is transferred at low or no cost to the project group. With proposals centred around the themes of leisure, the arts and the environment, KHFCP hopes to create a courtyard cafe bar and restaurant, a community farm and shop, and an arts venue incorporating gallery/studio/theatre space in the former farm complex when restored. Other plans include play facilities, nature walks and trails and green energy production.

The project is run entirely by community volunteers, although since 2006 it has developed partnerships with Forestry Commission Scotland, the GRAB Trust, ALIEnergy and other Argyll-based companies and organisations. Strathclyde Buildings Preservation Trust (SBPT), which has also been involved recently with the Dunoon Burgh Hall Project, has been working on an options appraisal to examine the future of the venture. This recommends that KHFCP offers the best long-term opportunity for the restoration of the buildings. The options appraisal report has indicated that the cost of refurbishing and regenerating the building will be around £3.5 million, with a variety of funding options available. Members of the MAKI area committee have now agreed to give the project, in partnership with SBPT, 18 months to secure funding for the repair and development of the buildings.

KHFCP will provide regular progress updates to the council throughout the development phase, and has also been asked it to produce a detailed and robust business plan showing how the group will cover long term revenue costs. The next step for the project partners will be the consideration and completion of funding applications. After hearing of the area committee’s decision, the group’s vice-chair, Chirsty Hamilton, said: “We are all delighted that our hard work has paid off. “It is an ambitious proposal but we are hoping to be able to provide as many elements as we can.” Sarah MacKinnon of SBPT said: “This is a very exciting project and I am pleased to be involved, working in partnership with the project group and the council. The next few months will see a lot of hard work to develop it further.” The Home Farm buildings do require urgent remedial works to stop further deterioration, and it is understood that Argyll and Bute Council is currently investigating opportunities to carry out the same. Further information about the Kilmory Home Farm plans can be found at www.kilmoryhomefarm.org

In another example of Argyll and Bute Council’s groundbreaking approach to asset transfer, Arrochar & Tarbet Community Development Trust report that the Council has been incredibly supportive of them overall, and cite an example where the Council has transferred to them £305,000 received from sale of the former outdoor education centre site as a contribution to the capital costs of the planned new community campus. The Council has also provided a further £50,000 grant funding. A&TCDT now have all the funding they require in place (c. £1.2 million) for both the capital costs of the new building and three years revenue costs (which will pay for a Campus Manager who will be responsible for making the campus self-sustaining). Strathclyde Passenger Transport and Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Authority are investigating the potential for a new pontoon style pier on Loch Fyne adjacent to the site, which should ensure a ready market for the Trust’s existing Pit Stop Dinner café. A&TCDT hope to re-furbish their Pit Stop café and build a new toilet block adjacent to this that will be open to the public.

Author: Argyllshire Advertiser

TAYVALLICH’S ‘lifeline’ shop has been saved from the chop – thanks to the determination of local residents.

After being on the market for over a year with no offers to buy Tayvallich Shop, Post Office and Coffee Shop, locals were worried that owner Mo MacLaurin would be forced into selling the building for residential development.

So, the community decided to form a steering group to spearhead a bid to bring the business into community ownership – and were thrilled to learn this week that a funding application to the BIG Lottery Growing Community Assets fund has been successful.

Tayvallich Community Group chairman Peter Burrell said: ‘The award of £196,570 will represent a large percentage of the £280,000 required to buy and develop the business.

‘We are now able to go forward as a community – in control of our own future.’

Group member Jilly Wilson added: ‘The whole community pulled together to raise funds towards the project, with 78 per cent of households donating by personal pledge or through community events.

‘An auction night held in July raised over £9,350, and Tayvallich Gala Weekend in August raised nearly £6,000.

‘After nearly a year of business planning and fundraising, the community is finally able to take the future of vital village services into its own hands.’

The community intend to lease the business to operators John Anderson and Rosie McAllister who have experience of running their own businesses in the catering and retail sectors.

Author: LPL

An Iron Age roundhouse constructed using local timber, stone, heather and moss is to be built on Skye over just 10 days.

Members of Dunvegan Community Trust want to enlist volunteers to help them erect the replica at Orbost, in the north-west of the island.

Jan Robinson, a member of the trust which is behind the plans, said: “The lower wall will be made from stone, the floor will be a mixture of compacted earth and pebbles, while the conical roof will be made using wood and a blend of heather, moss and thatch.

“We hope to complete the building, from start to finish, in 10 days, but we are keen to hear from volunteers who would like to take part in the reconstruction.”

The project has been financed with a grant of £9,700 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a community-based programme of activities and events in north-west Skye.

The DunCelt project is a combination of oral history, archive research and traditional skills which aims to promote the heritage of Dunvegan.

Qualified local artisans have been identified to advise and lead community groups through the planned activities and teach new skills. These will be informal sessions open to all ages and abilities.

The roundhouse is being built during workshops of one course.

An information leaflet will be produced, copies of which will be available from the Tourist Information Centre and other community focal points. Once completed, there will be a celebration launch, with storytelling.

Most roundhouses have not survived as the organic materials used to build them rots away over time.

However, last summer, one of the biggest Iron Age roundhouses found in Scotland was uncovered during an archaeological dig near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire.

Anyone wishing to volunteer should contact Ms Robinson on 01854 633733 or e-mail to jan@scoraig.com

Author: Comment by Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

What counts is not wealth or poverty, says Polly Toynbee after reading Richard G Wilkinson’s The Impact of Inequality, but your place on the social ladder

Does inequality really matter? The poor have what their grandparents would think unimaginable luxuries – TVs, telephones and washing machines. So why should it matter to them if in some unseen stratosphere the gated kleptocrats on company boards award themselves staggering sums of money? Does anyone really mind the gap?

That is a reasonable question and it niggles away at those on the left, too. Equality has gone out of fashion. Social justice under Labour means heaving the poorest over the poverty threshold and lifting the life chances of children from lower social classes. Tony Blair said early on that he was not bothered about wealth, only about abolishing poverty. Talk of inequality sounds like the old politics of envy. Equality of opportunity, yes, but equality for its own sake, why?

Here is the answer. Richard Wilkinson is a professor of social epidemiology, an expert in public health. From that vantage point he sees the world in terms of its physical and psychological wellbeing, surveying great sweeps of health statistics through sociological eyes. He has assembled a mountain of irrefutable evidence from all over the world showing the damage done by extreme inequality. However rich a country is, it will still be more dysfunctional, violent, sick and sad if the gap between social classes grows too wide. Poorer countries with fairer wealth distribution are healthier and happier than richer, more unequal nations.

This book is timely since the NHS annual report has just found that Labour has missed two key goals, both symptoms of inequality. Infant mortality and life expectancy figures are both moving in the wrong direction. If Labour is perplexed as to the reason why, Wilkinson can suggest plenty of answers here. Life expectancy in rich nations correlates precisely with levels of equality. So Greece, with half the GDP per head, has longer life expectancy than the US, the richest and most unequal country with the lowest life expectancy in the developed world. The people of Harlem live shorter lives than the people of Bangladesh. When you take out the violence and drugs, two-thirds of the reason is heart disease. Is that bad diet? No, says Wilkinson, it is mainly stress, the stress of living at the bottom of the pecking order, on the lowest rung, the stress of disrespect and lack of esteem. Bad nutrition does less harm than depression.

The book blisters with research like this: tests found that subordinate, low-status monkeys had high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, which leads to arteriosclerosis. When the high-status monkeys were all put together and low-status monkeys put in another enclosure, all the pecking orders changed. When some previous high-rankers became subordinate they developed all the same physical symptoms, including a five-fold increase in arteriosclerosis within less than two years. Meanwhile, some of the low-rankers who suddenly found themselves dominant, had sharply dropped levels of stress hormone.

People, says Wilkinson, are the same. Social status and respect matter beyond anything, and the psychological damage done by being at the bottom is crippling. A survey of Whitehall civil servants found junior ranks were three times more likely to die in a year than seniors, with a fine sliding gradation from top to bottom according to status. If one office was found to be killing three times more than another next door, it would be evacuated instantly. Yet social environment may matter almost as much as asbestos.

Homicide rates (and other crimes) track a country’s level of inequality, not its overall wealth. The fairest countries have the highest levels of trust and social capital. The American states that have the more equal income distribution also have most social trust: New Hampshire, the most equal, is least likely to agree that “most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance”.

Wilkinson’s message is that social environment can be more toxic than any pollutant. Low status and lack of control over one’s life is a destroyer of human health and happiness. The wealth gap causes few to vote or participate in anything in a world of fear, conflict and hostility.

It is not primarily five-a-day fruit and veg or obesity that need targeting, but social injustice itself. Infant mortality is mainly a result of low-birth weight babies, something the government has tried hard to improve. Wilkinson shows that these days small premature babies are not caused by bad diet: even poor nutrition by British standards will rarely harm a foetus. It is stress in pregnancy that does it, high cortisol levels which affect the foetus for life – and poorer mothers are more depressed, with less social support. Psyche matters more than vitamins, all through life. An orphanage in hungry post-war Germany found children on the same diet were found to have grown most under the kindest matron and least under the unkindest matron.

Poverty in rich nations is not a number or the absence of a particular necessity. A poor vicar may bring up children well on lentils and respect. But for most people respect is measured in money. Low pay tells people that their labour and they themselves are worth little. Poverty is not, as the government imagines, a line to pull people over but it is a position on a line. If it tilts too sharply upwards, the pain of those at the bottom can be measured in hard statistics.

This book is evidence for what common sense already knows. Children on free school meals, with no holidays to talk about, unable to afford the school trips, who never invite anyone back to a shabby home, painfully understand their place in the hierarchy from their first day at school. Adults know the same, noses pressed up against the window of lifestyle shows on TV. This is a book that puts the numbers to a psychological truth: inequality is the real enemy.

The Impact of Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Healthier by Richard G Wilkinson 355pp, Routledge, £19.99