Author: LPL

A film made by 10 children from Knoydart is the only Scottish entry chosen in Best Film(under 12’s) category at the National First Light Movies Awards. The film, entitled `Munchatreeaforest`, is about forest regeneration and the effect it is having on them and their community. The film can be viewed at Film Street. See http://www.filmstreet.co.uk/thestreet/cinema/screenone/viewfilm.aspa?pageid=266&nodeid=189&videoid=230

Author: LPL

Statement from Dharmendra Kanani (CEO BIG Lottery) re Strategic Partnership Board

Dynamic Inclusive Communities

I confirmed that the Scotland Committee agreed a timescale and process for considering the responsive strand of this funding which would mean Outline Proposal Forms would have to be submitted by 31st January 2008. This is likely to result in decisions being made in this area in October. The Scotland Committee is keen to have an overview of funding in this area about how we can add real value to National Voluntary Sector Intermediaries and to reflect how this funding has synergy with the supporting voluntary action solicitation from SCVO. It is this desire to have a strategic overview which has led to this new timescale and process. Details of this are on our website. It should be noted that we recognise the impact of this new timescale on organisations and their plans and as a result the Scotland Committee will take a view on this timescale early in the New Year when we have a better idea of the number and quality of bids submitted to us.

Strategic Partnership Board

There appears to be confusion about the role and purpose of the Strategic Partnership Board (SPB). The establishment of an SPB is a result of the Scotland Committee’s consideration of and decision on SCVO’s Supporting Voluntary Action (SVA) solicited bid. The Committee is keen to ensure that there is a strategic overview of SVA to ensure that there is a wide cross-sectoral engagement in and delivery of this significant change agenda for the voluntary sector in Scotland. BIG is conscious of the fact that its investment needs to respond, be aligned to and form part of a wider set of institutional structures and funding across Scotland. The Chair of the SPB would be independent and the Board would be made up of a wide cross section of stakeholders and interests. Clearly, the interests and the needs of social enterprise will form part of the consideration of the board and its composition.

Author: LPL

Possible actions for inclusion in LPL statement on community empowerment:

Improving representative democracy

• Community call for action (petitions)
• Community Councils – pilot enhanced powers
• Community kitties/ delegated budgets

Resourcing communities

• New focus on wider role for community controlled RSLs – embed sustainability into wider action programme
• Actions to facilitate increased levels of ‘direct’ community benefit from windfarm developments
• Asset transfer. Acknowledge the findings of Quirk Review and publish a Scottish Action Plan as a response.
• Land Reform Act. Agree timescale for wholesale review of Act. (Extend to all communities in Scotland. Review and simplify process of registration of CRtB)

Building local capacity

• Community Anchors – acceleration programme
• National training programme for activists and community workers
• National intermediaries – support and better cross sector working?
• Recognise the community sector as a discrete sub-sector within 3rd sector
• Formalise mechanisms for community influence at Community Planning Partnership
• Minimum of 50% community representation in local allocation decisions of the new Fairer Scotland Fund.

Author: LPL

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears today launched radical proposals to make people’s voices heard on the key issues they care most about, such as tackling anti-social behaviour, helping older people or improving local parks.
Under these proposals, councils would be required to respond to petitions submitted by local people, which could be on any issue for which the local council has responsibility, from abandoned vehicles to youth services.
Currently there is no requirement for councils to respond to petitions, no matter how many people sign up. But under these proposals, councils would be legally required to respond to any petition gaining significant local support.
Under the proposed new measures if the council ignores the petition or the response is unsatisfactory, they could ask their local councillor to trigger a ‘select committee’ style hearing within the local authority to ensure that an issue affecting the people living or working in his or her ward is raised and debated, under the new “councillor call for action”, which Parliament recently passed.

Adding the duty on local councils to respond to petitions to the call for action will give people an additional, direct route to ensuring that their concerns and ideas are considered properly by those who have the power to do something about them.

Petitions already have legal teeth in Germany, the United States, Canada, Sweden, Italy and New Zealand and a recent survey found only two countries in Europe were found to sign petitions more than Britons. If approved, the plans could come into force from as early as next year, or later if legislation is required.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said:
“We have a rich history of writing and signing petitions: 60 per cent of us do so each year, but do we have a rich enough history of answering and responding to them? These new powers would mean the concerns of local people can no longer be filed away and ignored, and ensure we have a more responsive culture.

“Governments are elected to serve the people, and that applies locally as well as nationally. New petition powers would put more influence, power and control in the hands of communities, leading to greater action to tackle their concerns and improving the health of our local democracy.
“Giving local people a greater say is not a threat to local government’s legitimacy – good councils actually do this already. Listening to the concerns and priorities of the people who use local services can only strengthen our local democracy.”

Author: LPL

Scottish housing and regeneration policies do not give priority to local community action – and with the demise of Communities Scotland things could get worse. It is critical to the LPL campaign which bit of Scottish Government `does` community empowerment. This is still unresolved

See www.localpeopleleading.co.uk/downloads/structurechart.doc

Author: LPL

The Third Sector division in Scottish Government has restructured internally. The division will continue existing work such as supporting national intermediaries and implementing the social enterprise strategy but the new structure recognises the shared nature of many of the issues facing both voluntary organisations and social enterprises – for example around commissioning and connecting with Community Planning Partnerships.

The structure now has four themes: Strategic Development and Partnerships – ensuring a strong and positive engagement with the sector and ensuring the contribution of the third sector is integrated into wider Scottish Government policy; Opportunities for Growth – working with the sector and commissioners on procurement processes and establishing a robust evidence base with the sector; Investing for Growth – developing and managing the key investment programmes as well as working with funders and others on new approaches; and, Supporting Localism – increasing the focus on how to support the third sector (volunteering, social enterprise and voluntary organisations) at the local level within the context of the concordat with COSLA and the desire to contribute to Community Planning .

This focus also reflects the discussion at the recent Third Sector Seminar hosted by Jim Mather MSP, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism in Victoria Quay – with issues around procurement, funding patterns and conditions as well as constraints on skills development within thesector appearing as key issues inhibiting the sectors contribution to sustainable economic growth.

See www.senscot.net/docs/organogram.doc

Author: Common Good Campaign

Common Good is the name given to the inherited property of the former burghs of Scotland and consists of a range of assets both moveable (furniture, paintings, regalia etc.) and heritable (land and buildings).

With respect to the 196 burghs defined in the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 (and whose Town Councils were wound up in May 1975), these assets are held by Local Authorities (in other words they have legal title) on behalf of the inhabitants of the former burghs. Title transferred under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 because no provision was made for any community body to act as a successor to the Town Councils.

Other classes of Common Good exist. These include land forming part of burghs not included in the 1947 Act and land owned by former Parish Councils and County Councils where it was purchased or gifted for the benefit of a defined group of people (in a village or town). Such other classes, however, are far less clearly defined in either statute of case law and further research is needed to determine their fate.

The goal of the Common Good Campaign which is supported by a new website (http://www.scottishcommons.org)
• have an accurate public register of all Common Good assets (both heritable and moveable)
• have full and accurate accounts published for every Common Good Fund
• have a new Common Good Act which will define and stipulate how Common Good Funds should be managed and which will provide a statutory right for communities of former burghs to have legal title to all Common Good assets.

All common good material published as part of Caledonia’s Commonweal programme has now been moved to a new and permanent location at

http://www.scottishcommons.org

Author: Holyrood News

The director for Scotland of the Community Transport Association has said that his members are “uncertain” for the future, following proposed changes to their funding structures in the Scottish Government’s budget spending review announced last month.

John Macdonald said that the changes had “thrown everything up in the air”. Funding for community transport was to become the responsibility of Scotland’s seven regional transport partnerships (RTPs) from April next year, but the concordat between COSLA and the government plans for these funds to instead go to local authorities, where they would not be ring-fenced for transport.

Macdonald said: “It’s really close to the point in time when our members had hoped to know what the budgets were with the RTPs for next year, and what the decision making process would be as well.

“All that has been thrown out, and now the local authorities are going to be the key source of funds if the concordat is ratified, so at this time, things are up in the air, really for community transport, we’re uncertain as to what’s going to happen.

“The whole community transport network was very surprised. I think people were quite positive about the year ahead, but it’s all just changed now, and we’ve got a very short space of time, four months, before the change.

“There are some groups whose funding [through the Rural Community Transport Initiative (RCTI)] runs out in March who would be normally getting word now about carrying things forward from April 1, so we don’t know what’s going to happen, but it might affect these services. I know of at least 17 projects, in different parts of rural Scotland whose funding [will run out] out on 31 March, so they’re the most vulnerable ones.

“There are 2.6 million passenger journeys in Scotland each year by community transport and now we have to deal with 32 local authorities, and we have to rely on them being supporters of community transport.

“There were ring-fenced funds specifically for community transport from central government, now we could be caught up in the bun fight which will take place within individual local authorities, and that could have a knockon effect for people who are frail, disabled, live in remote rural locations and for whom the public transport system just does not work. For many community transport groups, this has been a bolt out of the blue for them.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We have an historic agreement with COSLA, which will give local government record levels of funding to invest in local priorities. Reduced ring-fencing presents a unique opportunity; to have more freedom to invest in the transport projects expected by the communities they represent.

“Local authorities already know the value of their local community transport projects and will use this information when deciding whether new funding agreements should be offered.”

Author: Government News Network

Street markets run by the traders, old fire stations turned into community centres and listed buildings being restored for the benefit of the general public are just some of the assets which will be transferred into the hands of local people at discount prices as low as £1.00.

In a major acceleration towards ensuring that communities in every part of the country get a chance to run their own assets, Hazel Blears has announced a new target of 80 areas within two years starting with an extra 14 demonstration areas on top of the 20 that already exist.

She will also announce the allocation of £2m to support the new pilots (part of £35m announced last month for empowerment initiatives).

Just six months after the Government challenged councils to maximise the transfer of public assets to the community, demonstration projects are off the ground in 20 areas.

An old town centre court house, a historic library and even a station yard are just some of the assets that councils are handing over to community-led organisations prepared to bring these iconic properties back to community life.

There are examples all over the country of how asset transfer can provide a home for a range of social enterprises, provide a meeting space for local groups, give people an opportunity to learn new skills.

One of the most remarkable of the current pilots is Hastings Pier which has been closed for health and safety reasons since July 2006 (see notes).
The Communities Secretary will say:
“There’s no better advocate for local people than local people themselves, no service that can’t be improved by their active involvement. It’s been my privilege to see struggling estates and neighbourhoods made safer and cleaner thanks to commitment and courage of local residents.”

Speaking at the Plunkett Foundation annual conference on ‘Rural Social Enterprise’ in Cambridgeshire, The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said that community engagement was not just for inner cities:
“Rural communities today face new challenges – an ageing population, some places seeing new migration for the first time, an ever-present need for local shops and services. Giving local people more opportunities to get things done for themselves will be a big part of the solution.”

She will quote examples of existing asset transfer pilots in rural areas like the district of Restormel in Cornwall, focussing on a set of Grade 2 listed cottages built in the early 18th century and situated in a popular public garden and Ashfield in Nottingham which is looking at the potential of handing over of a former stable which had also been used as a schoolroom and is currently being renovated.

The Communities Secretary also encouraged those living in rural areas to use their existing powers to have a bigger say over what happens in their community:
“What better example could there be of local democracy in action than the parish council? These are local people, elected by their neighbours, knowing what their village needs, and able to levy a small precept to invest in it.

“That’s why we are giving the best parishes a new “well-being power”, giving them much more discretion to spend their money as they see fit – on everything from environmental projects, local services for the young or elderly, or getting involved in social enterprises.

“Participatory budgeting is another means of giving people a direct say over how public money is spent in their local area. It not only makes sure their priorities are being met; it’s a way of making them feel more able to say “this is my street, my estate, and I’m proud of it.” Devolution right to the doorstep.”

The Opening the Transfer Window implementation plan was launched in May to maximise the transfer of public assets to communities in order to make services more responsive and create more confident empowered communities with greater civic spirit.

New pilots
1. Newark and Sherwood District Council will transfer an under-used sports pavilion based next to an estate featured in the lowest 20% in the Index of Multiple Deprivation (2004), and suffering anti-social behaviour problems: the site will be transformed into a centre for young people, and be managed by a local consortium headed by the Everyday Champions Centre. Other local community centres and village halls are also under consideration for possible asset transfer.

2. West Lindsay District Council will transfer an old CCTV building to the Young and Safe in Gainsborough (YaSiG) Partnership, to develop new facilities for young people in the area. By day, an alternative education service will operate from the site, offering courses to secondary school-age pupils disaffected by mainstream education, while in the evening, young people will be able to meet and socialise in a new coffee bar, with advice and counselling facilities also available.

3. Barking and Dagenham Council has a policy to hand over the management of 17 community halls, and is considering transfer to voluntary bodies as a base for service provision. The extensive redevelopment of Barking and the Riverside are also expected to bring further asset transfer opportunities.

4. North Hertfordshire District Council has identified three possible facilities for asset transfer. Hitchen Town Hall and Bancroft Hall have been identified as possible bases for new facilities for young people, while Hitchen Open Air Market will be managed jointly by town partnership the Hitchen Initiative, and local market traders.

5. Bexley Council will transfer Hurst Community Centre, a building of historical and architectural interest, with the possible establishment of a local charity or trust to manage it. The move follows the restructuring of the council’s Community Services Department, to take responsibility of the borough’s seven community centres, all of which are being considered for asset transfer.

6. Taunton Deane District Council is looking at plans to transfer up to
six buildings in the Halcon Ward to community ownership, following the establishment of the Taunton East Development Trust.

7. Hull City Council has identified a range of under-used facilities for transfer to community ownership, including community centres, garage sites, former school buildings and commercial properties. Alongside the asset management strategy, which includes supporting the successful management of a New Deal for Communities Area by the Preston Road Development Trust, the council has also developed new concessionary lease arrangements for the voluntary and community sector.

8. Allerdale Borough Council will transfer Wigton Market Hall and Wigton Community Centre to a new development trust, the North Allerdale Partnership. The Market Hall will be renovated, with plans including a new mezzanine floor to provide additional space, while Wigton Community Centre will become available to local residents as community groups based there move to the refurbished Market Hall.

9. Durham County Council identified a variety of buildings available for asset transfer in a recent report, including 33 community centres, swimming pools, school buildings, family centres and libraries. Sites include Glenroyd House, a former old people’s home that will be managed by a consortium of voluntary organisations, and Kelloe Pool, which will be re-opened by a local community partnership.

10. Gateshead Council approved the transfer of Hub for the Community in Birtley in 2005. The building, an old shop with upstairs offices, will be developed by Birtley Community Partnership to provide facilities for community activities for Birtley’s 8,000 residents. The council has undertaken a review of its 61 community centres to examine future transfer opportunities.

11. Leicester City Council has already transferred the Outdoor Pursuits Centre – which provides activities to young people, people with disabilities and other ‘hard to reach’ groups – and the Cort Crescent Community Centre to community ownership, and is investigating the possible transfer of the Highfields Centre – providing a range of facilities including fitness suites, a creche and early years provision – to the Highfields Community Association.

12. Newcastle City Council will transfer assets including the former West Road Fire Station, a former library and the Stephenson Building, to community management. The council is developing a new approach to asset transfer, which involves mapping assets across the area, to ensure transfers maximise the use of existing assets, consider the location of other public agency buildings and supports regeneration plans.

13. Portsmouth City Council has a vision to establish a Third Sector Centre of Excellence, to ensure council-owned buildings being used by third sector organisations are better used: the organisations would be re-housed in better accommodation to ensure these buildings, often in a poor state of repair and not compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act, are available for renovation and use.

14. Stoke-on-Trent Council is undergoing a review of its assets to identify sites available for transfer. The Council has completed a review of community centres and is now consulting on their transfer to Community Centre Boards. The pilot will be used to identify how community and neighbourhood organisations, as well as Councillors and Council officials, can assist and be involved in asset transfer.

Update on existing pilots

Ashfield – a former stable and, more recently, schoolhouse in a rural village and a run-down estate community centre with a community radio station in an adjacent portacabin – with business planning and investment readiness.

Cheshire – a community centre on a ‘pocket-of-deprivation’ estate in Winsford

Forest Heath – exploring a community land trust model involving a new community centre, shops and housing.

Hastings Pier has been closed for safety reasons since July 2006. The Council has assisted one of the Pier’s main tenants to re-open their business which employs around 30 local people on the Pier but the majority of the structure still remains closed. The Council has commissioned and paid for a full survey of the Pier which is currently being presented to the Council’s Cabinet and shared with the Friends of Hastings Pier (FOHP), English Partnerships and other stakeholders. The Council would like to explore in much greater detail with these partners how to achieve a permanent solution to the Pier’s problems and if and how the Council’s CPO powers or other legal means might support such an approach.

Lambeth -three sites in Clapham which involve private developers producing new health, leisure and educational facilities and fully refurbishing an historic library before handing back to community use.

Leeds – transfer of a former school to the community

Lewisham – potential transfer of Carnegie library for arts use plus possible youth and community centre

Peterborough – redevelopment of a former school site for a multi-service package involving the police, college, Pre-School Learning Alliance and others.

Restormel – set of grade 2 listed cottages built in the early 18th century, and situated in a popular public garden. Last occupied in the 1960s and housing a local museum until 1995, they are currently in state of disrepair and will require a major injection of funds to allow them to be re-used. The Friends of Trenance are a group of local people founded two years ago who have been actively planning and fundraising for new uses for the cottages. The council is keen to transfer the cottages and has allocated £100,000 for structural works.

Sheffield – redevelopment of a small community centre into a 2-storey community hub with excellent environmental standards

Tower Hamlets – proposals for a £30m redevelopment of Poplar Baths including renovation of the main swimming pool and new leisure facilities, subsidised from revenue generated by 30,000 sq. ft of managed workspace and retail, along with new housing development.

Warwick – exploring transfer opportunities for Pageant House, a town centre building of great local historic interest.

Author: LPL

The town of Alness, which had a population of 1600 in the early 1960s, saw major changes in the 1970s with the decision to create housing infrastructure for an aluminium smelter at nearby Invergordon and a major oil fabrication facility at Nigg at the entrance to the Cromarty Firth. By the early eighties the town’s population had grown to over 8,000. The population currently stands at 5,100.

The aluminium smelter and the oil fabrication yard both eventually closed leaving Alness with over 25% unemployment, council house voids running at 15%, one fifth of the shops on the High Street boarded up and a public image of a town in decline with a high crime rate and “junkies on each corner”. In a single generation, the town had changed from a quiet local market centre to a place in the 10% most deprived communities in Scotland.

Formed in 1995, Alness Initiative is a group of fourteen people who are representatives from the town’s most active voluntary organisations. The group was formed because local people were concerned that their town had an extremely poor reputation across the whole of the Highlands. Meeting fortnightly since 1995, they produced a shopping list of changes and improvements which the Community thought would be needed to start the process of regeneration in the town. They invited representation from the local authority and the enterprise company to join them to seek a positve step change for the town.

By 2004 the entire shopping list had been achieved. The infrastructural work was funded and carried out by Highland Council and/or Ross & Cromarty Enterprise. However, as shown time and time again in regeneration areas across the country, building new car parks and redesigning the High Street does not build social networks and create a sense of wellbeing or belonging.

The substantial success of the regeneration process in Alness has been the significant input from local volunteers. As an example the High Street redesign was pleasant but it did not attract new businesses – the town’s bad reputation still extended far and wide across the Highlands. However, a new voluntary organisation, the Alness Environmental Group was spawned from Alness Initiative and has become one of the most influential groups in the town. This energetic group of thirty volunteers set about a second transformation of the town centre. They raised money to put up hanging baskets and permanent plantings on the High Street and, growing in confidence, they entered Beautiful Scotland in Bloom – Small Town in 1997 and won their category. The town has gone on to win Britain in Bloom, World in Bloom and many other prestigious awards. In 2006, the town was crowned Britain in Bloom, Champion of Champions and currently features as an environmental tourist destination on Shredded Wheat packets.

Evidence of the rising community spirit can be evidenced by the increase in the number of residents associations which have been established in the period. With the support of the development officer each of the associations has been taking forward their own projects to improve the environment or bringing new facilities such as play parks, holiday play schemes, old folks lunch clubs into their area. All the groups run their activities using volunteers and this is also evidence of the growing community spirit that so many people across the town and social strata volunteer.

That there is a huge house building programme by RSL’s and commercial builders is evidence of the improvement in the quality of life for all people living in the town.

As the strategic planning group for the town, the Initiative was able to become the mechanism for the delivery of the Community Economic Development Programme (a European Objective 1 programme). Through this programme the Initiative was able to employ a development officer and with this offcier support, over £1.5 million has been raised by community groups to implement regeneration projects. These projects included: renovating and/or extending Averon Leisure Centre; West Alness Community Centre; Alness Golf Club; Alness Heritage Centre; Kensal Community Hall; installing renewable heating systems in most of these community run buildings. Many environmental renewal schemes; community art programmes; family learning projects; a full-time golf professional for the golf club and the purchase of publishing equipment for the production of a monthly newspaper for the town are samples of projects which the community identified. 

Currently, Alness Initiative is the decision-making body for the distribution of the towns’ allocation of Scottish Executive money from the Community Regeneration Fund (CRF). Although there has been a remarkable transformation of the town a few pockets still qualify for CRF as they appear in the top 15% of the most deprived communities in Scotland.  

Two Initiative representatives also sit on the Ross & Cromarty Development Partnership, a partnership which has represenatatives from all the statutory agencies.

In 1992/3 a massive community consultation exercise was carried out and two further community consultation meetings have been held to ensure that the Initiative is focusing on the right issues for the town. Five months ago a new shopping list was created.

Such is the success of the town in reducing its carbon footprint Highland & Islands Community Energy Company recently held a seminar open to community groups from Highland and the afternoon session was spent visiting the renewable energy projects in the Alness area. 

The growing awareness of the town for “Good News” stories and an exceptional environment has brought new businesses into the town. Today, unlike many rural small towns, new business spaces are being created despite the presence of Morrison’s and Lidl supermarkets on the outskirts of the town. Indeed in 2004 the shopkeepers on the High Street said they had recorded a 30% increase in turnover and attributed this to the new-look street and the growing reputation of the town as a quality shopping and visitor destination. 

The town is now a major visitor attraction and draws people from all over the world. 

The Initiative has also been recognised by gaining awards such as the Dynamic Place Award, was a finalist in Enterprising Britain 2007 and recently was declared a Winner in the BURA Community Inspired Regeneration.