Author: David Marquand

Decline of the Public, Polity Press 2004

At this point, some definitions are in order. The public domain, in my sense of the term, should not be confused with the public sector. It depends on public institutions (notably the rule of law), but it is not confuted to them. In principle, a large public domain could coexist with a small public sector. There is certainly nothing sacrosanct about the ratio between the two which obtained in mid- and late-twentieth-century Britain. In earlier periods the ratio was very different; and there is no reason of principle why it should not be different in future. As I shall show in the next chapter, the growth of the public domain provides one of the central themes of nineteenth-century British history. For most of that period, the public sector grew much more slowly. Government expenditure as a proportion of GNP was lower in 1900 than it had been in 1831, and in absolute terms it did not grow very much until the decade of the 1890s. As late as the 1920s, Keynes expected further growth in the public domain (not that he used the term) -not as a result of state action but because privately owned companies would increasingly assume public responsibilities. The Bank of England (then still in private ownership) was already a classic case of such a company. In the 1950s, Anthony Crosland, the high priest of the revisionist social democracy of the day, thought one of the reasons why capitalism had changed so radically that it could hardly be called capitalism any longer was that the managers of big capitalist firms increasingly adopted a public-service ethic.

Indeed, the public domain should not be seen as a ‘sector’ at all. It is best understood as a dimension of social life, with its own norms and decision rules, cutting across sectoral boundaries: as a set of activities, which can he (and historically have been) carried out by private individuals, private charities and even private firms as well as public agencies. It is symbiotically linked to the notion of a public interest~ in principle distinct from private interests; central to it are the values of citizenship, equity and service. In it goods are distributed on the basis of need and not of personal ties or access to economic resources. It is a space, protected from the adjacent market and private domains, where Strangers encounter each other as equal partners in the common life of the society -a space for forms of human flourishing which cannot be bought in the market-place or found in the right- knit community of the clan of family or group of intimates. In a memorable account of the growth of social citizenship in the post-war period, T. H. Marshall wrote that its real significance lay, not in promoting income equality but in ‘a general enrichment of the concrete substance of civilised life …an equalisation between the more and rite less fortunate at all levels. He was writing about the post-war welfare state, but he caught the essence of the public domain as such.

In it citizenship rights trump both market power and kinship or neighbourhood bonds; the duties of citizenship take precedence both over market incentives and over private loyalties. As the Dahrendorf Commission put it,

The private world of love and friendship, and the market world of interest and incentive, are not the only dimensions of human life in society. There is a public domain with its own values…In the public domain people act neither out of the kindness of their hearts, nor in response to incentives, monetary or otherwise, but because they have a sense of serving the community.

That, of course, is an ideal, and a demanding ideal at that. No one could pretend that it is always followed in practice. Indeed, pan of the point of the story I told earlier in this chapter is to show how in recent years, it has been badly flouted by civil servants and by politicians of both major parties. But this does not mean that the ideal is in some way unreal or irrelevant: the same applies to the norms of the market domain and the private domain. Sellers sometimes collude to do down buyers, and friends are sometimes false, but it does not follow that the market and private domains are in some sense norm less. The important point is that the ideal is distinct and, so to speak, autonomous: that the norms governing behaviour in the public domain and the practices that embody and sustain them; the quality and character of the human relationships engendered in it; the principles that govern access to the activities that are carried on in it; and the incentives and disincentives that affect those who carry them on differ from their equivalents in the market and private domains.

In the private domain, loyalty to friends and family is a (perhaps the) supreme venue. In the public domain, it is not. E. M. Forster’s famous assertion that he would rather betray his country than his friends was shocking because he had applied the norms of the private domain to a domain where they do not belong. Favouritism and nepotism are shocking for the same reason. To apply the values of the private domain to the public domain is, in a profound to corrupt it. It is equally shocking, because equally corrupting, to apply market norms to the public domain. That is why it is a crime to buy and sell votes or honours or government policies or justice. In the market domain, goods and services are -quite properly -commodities to be bought and sold. The price mechanism allocates resources, including labour. In principle at least, free competition ensures that they are allocated efficiently. But votes, honours government policies and justice belong to the public domain. And because they belong to the public domain they must not be commodified. By the same token, the measuring rods that assess efficiency in the market domain -“throughput’, productivity, added value, the monetary return on capital -have no place in the public domain. Academics do not miraculously become more efficient when the staff-student ratio falls and lectures are overcrowded; the value of a stay in hospital is not enhanced if low-paid contract nurses with little commitment to the job, replace established nursing teams.

Author: Newstart

Scotland’s £40m share of dormant bank accounts should be used to usher in a ‘new era’ of community-led regeneration north of the border, according to a third sector coalition.

Local People Leading (LPL), which campaigns for a stronger community sector, said the money should be used to create 20 £2m endowment funds controlled by resident-led organisations in the most deprived areas.

The money would provide communities with a long-term source of income, helping them to become more independent. It would also give residents more power to tackle problems and greater control over the development of their neighbourhoods.

LPL, comprising the Development Trusts Association Scotland, social enterprise network Senscot, Community Recycling Network Scotland, and Community Retailing Network said the funds would reduce the ‘begging bowl’ culture undermining local organisations.

‘Underpinning this proposal is the principle that the people who live in a community are best placed to lead any process of change or renewal that occurs within that community and should always be given the opportunity to do so,’ LPL said.

The call is part of a submission to the Scottish Government on the consultation on dormant bank accounts, which closes on Monday.

The dormant bank and building society accounts bill, currently progressing through the UK parliament, aims to use money that has been dormant for 15 years to strengthen the third sector.

The money is due to be distributed by the Big Lottery Fund next year.

LPL attacked regeneration policy in Scotland over the past 25 years claiming it had achieved little. It said initiatives had been ‘without exception’ top-down, led by the local authority in partnership with other public sector bodies.

Schemes had resulted in short-term funding for community projects that had been unable to sustain themselves beyond the lifetime of the programme.

LPL added that regeneration leaders had failed to capitalise on examples shown by the Highlands and Islands on the benefits of community ownership and the importance of linking social and community development with economic growth.

‘The annual turnover of Scotland’s third sector is approximately £2.5bn,’ LPL said.

‘In relative terms, £40m is a small amount of money but there is a real danger that if it is committed along existing patterns of expenditure, it will generate little in terms of overall impact and additional value.’

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

Author: Scottish Community Development Centre

Conclusions of the ‘Strengthening Scotland’s Communities’ Committee Report
(The italics are our own)

The Strengthening Scotland’s Communities programme was delivered by the Scottish Community Development Centre on behalf of Learning Connections to over 200 participants with an interest in, or responsibility for community capacity building. Participants within the series of learning events comprised senior managers, CCB practitioners, and community activists from across Scotland and across sectors. A number of issues emerged from discussions which will be useful in considering how CCB practice can be further supported and developed in Scotland.

Conclusions

In many respects the discussion of issues has already indicated appropriate responses. This final section highlights some of the key messages that seem to come from the discussions.

Part of the perceived weakness of CCB seems to be associated with the lack of a national strategic framework and the need for a funded lead agency in this area. Both deserve attention. Though identified as a national priority within WALT the evidence is that CCB is not getting equivalent attention to the other national priorities, yet in terms of the aspirations of government policy to stimulate community empowerment and a more participatory style of democracy, this is an apparent contradiction.

As a starting point in any activity it is essential that the competences of those charged with its delivery are up to the challenge. The discussion of issues suggests that there remains some doubt about whether this is always the case. There is little doubt therefore that greater attention needs to be given to developing and articulating a robust practice theory for CCB in Scotland and to providing opportunities for development and enhancement of the required skills at qualifying and continuing professional development levels.

In relation to development of the theory of CCB practice, the discussions have highlighted the need to develop a much clearer perspective on the relationship between CCB as a tool for local empowerment and its contribution to national strategic outcomes. There is also a need to better understand the relationship between intermediary and end outcomes of the CCB process. Though there are perceived issues relating to interpretation of the descriptions of CCB outcomes as articulated for example in ‘Delivering Change’ and ‘How Good is Our Community Learning and Development’ the more fundamental problem seems to lie not in understanding what CCB is trying to achieve but in appreciating how to do it effectively.

In several discussions, for example, attention was drawn to the growing recognition of the potential of asset based, social economy practice as a means of underpinning community capacity. Social enterprises such as community trusts were seen as having the potential to underpin a self sustaining process of community capacity building in which the growing competence residing within communities could be tapped to build wider community capacity. Yet, despite this recognition, there was an apparent lack of confidence that, typically, CLD workers had the skills and knowledge effectively to promote such models of practice. It is in such areas that the development of a more robust and widely understood theory of the practice of CCB is required. This debate also adds a wider dimension to the need to enhance qualifying and post qualifying training opportunities.

Author: Bruce Oxley

A local environmental group is encouraging East Kilbride people to spring into action this month to help preserve a 10,000-year-old resident. The Friends of Langlands Moss are inviting people and businesses to enjoy the outdoors and help improve the local environment.

The group is launching a series of community action days starting on April 27 to protect the 10,000-year-old moss and ensure its long term future.

Last year the group secured funding worth up to £24,000 to enable them to carry out improvements to the moss in partnership with South Lanarkshire Council and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

They were awarded £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund to which the council and SNH both promised to add between three and seven thousand pounds each.
Chairman of the group Richard Naismith said: “Now we have some funding in place, we can’t wait to get started on work that will improve our local nature reserve for all to enjoy.

“We look forward to welcoming more volunteers and visitors to take part in making this special place even better.
“Areas such as Langlands Moss host a wealth of wildlife and provide a breath of fresh air from our busy lives.
“The moss was also part of a recent Glasgow University study to look at the carbon it stores, which is vital in the fight against climate change.”

The community action days will see volunteers help install dams to keep water in the moss and help to protect the wildlife that inhabits the area.

Repairs will also be carried out on the boardwalk, making it safer for people to walk on, and damaged information signs will be replaced with newer ones to tell visitors all about the moss.

The improvements to the boardwalk have already been started by the Phoenix Futures Rehabilitation Group along with SLC.

The first action day at the moss is scheduled for Sunday, April 27 between 11am and 4pm. For more information or for the opportunity to sponsor one of the dams please contact emailfolmek@hotmail.co.uk

Author: The Quirk Review (Summary)

Making Assets Work: The Quirk Review of community management and ownership of public assets

As a review team, we drew heavily on past work in this field, on submissions from and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, on the advice of officials from across Communities and Local Government as well as the Office of the Third Sector and HM Treasury, and from our own personal experiences, spanning local government, the voluntary and community sector and social enterprise, Registered Social Landlords and academia.
We were driven to three firm conclusions:

• Assets are used in service of an array of social, community and public purposes. Any sale or transfer of public assets to community ownership and management needs to realise social or community benefits without risking wider public interest concerns and without community purposes becoming overly burdened with asset management

• The benefits of community management and ownership of public assets can outweigh the risks and often the opportunity costs in appropriate circumstances. And if there is a rational and thorough consideration of these risks and opportunity costs, there are no substantive impediments to the transfer of public assets to communities. It can be done, indeed it has been done legitimately and successfully in very many places

• There are risks but they can be minimised and managed – there is plenty of experience to draw on. The secret is all parties working together. This needs political will, managerial imagination and a more business focused approach from the public and community sectors
We considered these in relation to the whole spectrum of community management and ownership of assets. The stake that community-led organisations have in particular assets extends from short-term management agreements, through to leasehold ownership on leases of varying lengths and freehold ownership. It also stretches from small volunteer-run village halls and community centres to multi-million pound, multi-purpose community enterprises.
We recognised that the greater the stake, the greater the financial and legal responsibility the organisation takes on, but also the greater the freedom to exploit the asset’s potential
As a result, we concluded that five key actions could make a decisive difference:

• The publication of comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative guidance on all aspects of local authority asset management, including within it detailed and explicit guidance on the transfer of assets to community management and ownership

• The publication of a toolkit for local authorities and other public bodies on risk assessment and risk management in asset transfer to communities

• Much greater access for local authorities and community organisations to expert advice and organisational development support relating particularly to the transfer and management by communities of land and buildings

• The smarter investment of public funds designated for community-led asset-based developments, where permissible, through the involvement of specialist financial intermediaries with expertise in the field and the ability to achieve high leverage ratios

• A major campaign to spread the word, through seminars, roadshows, training, use of the media, online and published information, and the dissemination of good practice, as well as promotion of “bottom up mechanisms” such as the proposed Community Call for Action and the Public Request to Order Disposal (PROD) scheme1

Author: LPL

West Dunbartonshire Council has recently transferred ownership of a former community education centre to the Renton Community Development Trust.

The centre will be named Ma Centre. It will house childcare, elderly day care, a Foyer style restaurant, conferencing facilities, and a small theatre. The land is adjacent to the River Leven, a well-used navigable waterway that links the Clyde Estuary with Loch Lomond. This provides opportunities to create berthing facilities and RCDT anticipate this would provide a ready market for the restaurant and theatre. Land behind the building is also included in the transfer and RCDT plan to build a new sports centre there.

The property was valued at £115,000 and transferred to RCDT for £1. The Council proposed that a number of restrictions or burdens be placed in the title, but RCDT refused to accept these. The Council eventually decided to proceed with the transfer without any restrictions or burdens, but has taken out a discount standard security against it. This means that in the event of the Trust disposing of the Centre, going into administration or being wound up within the next 20 years, a proportion of the discount (the difference between the current market value and the sale price) would be repayable to the Council. There is however a ranking agreement which means the Council’s security ranks second after any charge taken by a commercial lender. This allows RCDT to pursue private funding to develop the Centre and associated land.

For more information on RCDT go to http://www.localpeopleleading.co.uk/showdirectory.php?anchorid=10

Author: LPL

Community activists in Gargunnock have made a big impression on Stirling councillors – so much so that the locals look set to take over the village community centre.

Stirling Council’s Executive has agreed in principle to transfer the centre to the village’s community trust after members convinced councillors of their commitment and the merits of the proposal.

Villagers had launched their campaign to take over the hall more than a year ago after voicing fears that the council was considering selling it plus adjoining land.

They said losing it would “rip the heart and soul out of Gargunnock”.

The trust is seeking lottery funding for the centre, however its funding application is due to be considered by the Lottery Fund in November this year and time had been running out to provide the fund with necessary proof of the council’s commitment to the transfer.

If the funding application is approved, the trust will have six months to secure match funding of £247,000 for the project.

Scottish Ministers’ consent for the transfer will also have to be sought before the November deadline, something which council officers have been instructed to do “as soon as possible”.

Legal mechanisms are also to be put in place to ensure the title is not transferred until lottery and other funding is actually available.

The title or proceeds of the sale of the property would revert to the council if the project should fail in the future.

The decision was “warmly welcomed” by Labour opposition spokesman on corporate affairis Councillor Colin O’Brien.

He said: “The Labour group, the previous leader of the council Councillor Corrie McChord and I have given continual public support to this community bid as it was being presented to council officials.

“Thankfully the SNP administration’s change of heart comes just in time for the community’s lottery bid for funding.

“We wish it every success. This can be seen as a model of good practice for other local communities seeking the same ambitions for their area.”

Councillor O’Brien added that the SNP’s “complete u-turn” on the proposal was a “very welcome one”.

He said: “Their original decision at last month’s asset management group was to refuse the request.

“I raised it then as being totally wrong and I was aware how unpopular this was in the community, who have worked exceedingly hard for this project and are to be highly commended for their preparations and ambition.”

His comments, however, angered the SNP administration.

The asset management group convener Councillor Scott Farmer accusing Labour of spreading “irresponsible mistruths”, “shameful mudslinging” and attempting to score “cheap political points”.

He added: “Councillors McChord and O’Brien were absent from the initial meeting where the decision to refuse transfer was taken. So much for Labour’s supposed commitment.

“That decision to refuse was taken unanimously by all members present based on the available evidence and concerns over the robustness of the business plan and the future viability of the proposed transfer.

“Subsequently the Gargunnock Community Trust requested a meeting with the group to address our concerns and clarify the issues at hand. In the interests of genuine consultation and openness I agreed to a spcial meeting.”

Councillor Farmer said at no time in the intervening period did he receive representations from councillors O’Brien or McChord and he added the need for a speedy decision was “due entirely” to the previous administration having proved “incapable or unwilling” to come to a decision.

Councillor Farmer said that, after hearing the trust at the special meeting, the group unanimously overturned the previous recommendation.

They have agreed in principle to transfer the facility with “suitable safeguards” to protect it for future generations.

At the special meeting SNP councillors said the decision was a “one off” and commended the work of the community trust.

Tory leader at Stirling Council Councillor Alistair Berrill said: “I have been campaigning for this for a long time and our manifesto at the last council election committed us to putting more assets into the hands of communities.

“Communities across Stirling can take heart that they too can take charge of their facilities.

“The SNP have said this is a one-off and that is sad, we will be campaigning for a change in policy to give communities the freedom to run their facilities.

Author: LPL

The value of sterling may be plummeting as fears grow over the depth of a possible recession. But in the scenic East Sussex town of Lewes – famous for its bonfire night parties and bewildering number of pubs – a handy alternative is about to become available.

Next month, in the latest sign that localism is a coming force in British everyday life, Lewes will launch its own currency. In doing so, it joins a growing list of communities around the world attempting to protect regional economies and preserve the distinctive ‘feel’ of towns and villages.

The Lewes pound will initially be accepted in around 30 locally owned shops and a first run of 10,000-plus notes is expected. It is the largest-scale launch of a local currency in the UK since Lewes had its own pound in the 19th century and, in a coup for the organisers, the town’s branch of Barclays bank has agreed to accept it.
Those pushing the Lewes pound, which by law cannot display the Queen’s head but is legal tender, stress their humble ambitions for the new currency. ‘There will always be a need for a national currency, but it’s a question of trying to go back to what can be done locally,’ said Oliver Dudok van Heel, one of the scheme’s architects. ‘This is not us versus the rest of the world,’ added Beth Ambrose, a sustainability expert, who denied that the Lewes pound was a declaration of independence. ‘All we want to do is strengthen what’s good in our community.’

According to one analysis, 80 per cent of the money that goes into a supermarket till leaves the local economy immediately. By backing local stores such trends can be reversed, say the scheme’s supporters. ‘We had a beautiful, independent toy shop here once,’ van Heel said. ‘It’s now an estate agent.’

Lewes is not alone in its aspirations. In Totnes, Devon, a complementary currency has been running for more than a year. Similar schemes have been launched abroad and it is estimated there are about 9,000 around the world. Across the Atlantic in Berkshire, Massachusetts, some $800,000 worth of local ‘Berkshares’ are boosting a thriving alternative economy. Switzerland has introduced a localised credit card scheme, while Holland and Germany have had a surge of interest in complementary currencies.
Those backing the new schemes say they are ‘big tent’ projects which try to involve the whole community. Experts agree that they thrive in places where people have become disillusioned with central government, suggesting they reflect more than merely economic concerns.

‘This is political, but with a small p,’ said Patrick Cockburn, a Lewes resident who is backing the new currency. ‘It seems a Tory sort of idea – empowering individualism – but it’s really about boosting the local community.’

In Argentina, demand for local currencies took off after the economy collapsed in the late Nineties. ‘These types of currency go right back,’ said David Boyle, a fellow at the New Economics Foundation in London. ‘There was a flurry of complementary currencies in the Great Depression. But President Roosevelt outlawed them because he was afraid they might undermine the banks.’
For this reason, proponents of the Lewes pound believe now is the right time for its launch. ‘With the current credit crunch, there is some disquiet about the global economic system,’ van Heel acknowledged. ‘Who knows how important this could be? Studies show if there is more than 12 per cent unemployment in a community these systems become very popular.’

If anywhere can make a new currency work, the locals of Lewes claim it is their town, which prides itself on its independent spirit and the absence of the likes of Starbucks. It already has form when it comes to minor uprisings. After Greene King, the brewing and pub chain, stopped selling the locally brewed Harveys beer and ale at the Lewes Arms there was a mass boycott and the drinks were back within months.

Perhaps, then, it is no coincidence that the town’s most famous resident is the radical political pamphleteer Thomas Paine, credited with sowing the intellectual seeds of American independence. Etched under a painting of Paine on a wall of one of Lewes’s churches is one of his most famous aphorisms: ‘We have the power to build the world anew.’

Two centuries on, the inhabitants of Lewes have the chance to show in their own small way that they still agree.

An outline of the Eko Currency Scheme operating in Findhorn

Introduction
In May 2002 we commenced a pilot scheme for the Eko Currency. Having successfully completed the pilot, a new issue of Ekos was launched in April 2003, which ran until 28th February 2006. The third issue will run from 1st March 2006 until 28th February 2011. There are several organisations involved including The Phoenix Shop, NFD Ltd., the Findhorn Foundation and Ekopia itself. All these organisations have agreed to accept the Eko notes in exchange for goods and services rendered. The outlets they can be used in therefore include:

The Phoenix Shop at both the Park and Cluny
Park and Cluny Foundation Receptions
The Park Community Centre and Cluny Dining Room
Findhorn Bay Caravan Park, the Blue Angel Café and Gnosis Computing.

They may also be traded between individuals and with other businesses at their mutual discretion.

Ekos are valued at par with sterling i.e. 1 eko = £1, and notes are in one, five, and twenty denominations. Change in sterling may be provided. Limits are at the discretion of traders but we suggest a maximum of 99p.

Redemptions
The notes are time limited to 28.02.11 and must be spent before that time. Ekopia cannot, by law, redeem them for £s sterling from individuals (although traders may do so at their discretion). Ekopia can however redeem the notes from traders registered to operate the scheme. Cash redemptions will be permitted on a monthly basis. A small surcharge may be levied to encourage ongoing use of the currency. Given the regular flows of cash between most of the traders involved this should not be a serious inconvenience. (Details on application)

Traders will thus be able to return surplus Ekos for redemption to Ekopia on the 30th day of every month for sterling, which would be repaid by the 15th day of the subsequent month. Full redemption will be possible at the expiry date of the issue at no charge.

After the expiry date the Ekos may not used for trading, and may be redeemed for sterling by traders for a period of one month thereafter. Traders may redeem them for new eko notes for a period of two months after the expiry date.

Current Issue

This issue has circa £18,000 in circulation. Ekopia makes one-off loans to various local organisations with the sterling raised. The Ekos are thus backed by a sterling reserve.

Ekopia intends to distribute any net surplus from the currency issue project to Community Business and Organisations either as investment capital of some kind or as an outright gift via an Ecovillage Development Fund.

Main Aims & Purposes of the Eko Currency Issue

1) To provide low interest finance and reduced banking charges for local businesses and projects, and to promote the Ecovillage in general as a place of innovation and sustainable economy.

2) To encourage trading with and between community businesses.

3) To inspire both guests and residents with the demonstration value of a locally based currency, and to get the users thinking about how and where they spend their money.

4) To create development and gift capital for local businesses and projects.