Author: commmunities.gov.uk

Motivations and barriers to citizen governance

22.01.07

A new report has been produced for the Department for Communities and Local Government (England and Wales). The authors say the study “provides an insight into people’s awareness and knowledge of citizen governance, the barriers and motivations to involvement and the types of people who get involved in these roles.”

The publication is downloadable online here:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1505469.

Source: http://www.communities.gov.uk

Author: Regeneration & Renewal

Programme bids to find Scottish rural leaders 

Regeneration & Renewal

19.01.07

Scotland‘s national economic development agency has launched a leadership programme in a bid to create rural business and community ambassadors.

Scottish Enterprise has commissioned the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) to deliver the programme, which will be used to recruit and train people as champions for their areas.

It is intended that participants on the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership Programme will gain the skills necessary to influence public policy, develop successful rural businesses and motivate people in their local communities.

The programme will run over six months and include modules on: effective leadership skills; communication, negotiation and influencing skills; understanding and working with regional, national and European governments; and strategic analysis and planning.

Julian Pace, chairman of Scottish Enterprise’s Rural Group, said: “Rural industries are constantly facing new challenges. It is essential that our rural leaders of the future are able to discuss and help shape these issues.”

For details, contact Sandy Ramsay at the SAC on (tel) 0131 535 3442 or (email) sandy.ramsay@sac.co.uk.

Author: BBC

Community’s bid to buy POW camp 
 
BBC
16.01.07

A group of villagers in Perthshire has launched an attempt to buy a former World War II camp which once housed notorious Nazi prisoners.

The community in Comrie is putting together a bid to buy the Cultybraggan camp from the Ministry of Defence.

The maximum security facility, which opened in 1939, held up to 4,000 Nazi prisoners during World War II, including SS troops. Its high-profile prisoners included Hitler’s deputy Rudolph Hess, who was held there for one night after he crash landed his plane in Scotland.

‘Major’ site

Cultybraggan was retained as a training camp after the war, but the Ministry of Defence has now decided to sell the site, along with the many Nissen huts which are still standing.

The Comrie Development Trust, which is behind the proposal to buy the 64-acre site, is to hold a public meeting where villagers will have the opportunity to say what they would like to see done with the camp.

The trust is to be given first offer for the purchase after the Scottish Executive accepted the group’s official register of interest.

Trust secretary Alan Caldwell said: “The community wants the opportunity to consider what will happen in Cultybraggan and have their say on the future of a major, major piece of land.”

Author: Senscot

Citizen forums ‘will ask tough questions about the role of Citizen and State’

15.01.07

New social research published today shows what people think and expect from the State and public services. It signals how people as citizens want to interact with the State and what kind of role the State should play in their lives.

The evidence from Ipsos MORI provides a new insight into the public’s thinking and appetites for change regarding rights and responsibilities, tackling damaging behaviours that hinder communities and ensuring more customer-focused public services.

The research has been carried out as part of the government’s policy review looking at challenges for the next ten years and beyond and marks the beginning of the public engagement phase.

Cabinet Office Ministers Pat McFadden and Ed Miliband steered a discussion about the research at Downing Street today. Pat McFadden said the government wanted “to assess future challenges in a way that is democratic, upfront, presents all the information to the public and doesn’t shy away from the tough issues.” He said citizen forums would be faced with real-life examples of the choices government faces.

 “It’s important we hear from businesses and public services that have made great strides in turning around their services to meet customer demands, learn about what barriers they faced and how they make use of social research.”

At the meeting the Prime Minister and Secretaries of State talked with businesses and public sector representatives with proven track records of shaping services around customers. They discussed how the research could inform customer care and discussed experiences in private and public sectors of service reform.

The government says it will use the research to put “important and tough questions” about the future of public services and the relationship between the citizen and state to the ‘citizen forums’.

The citizen forums will be made up of 100 independently selected members, representative of the population, recruiting “ordinary people drawn from all walks of life”. The aim is not just for them to give their opinions as of members of the public, but also to advise what action the government should take.

They will meet across the country in February which culminates in a London summit to discuss conclusions in March. Findings will be presented to the Cabinet to inform public service agreements and the forthcoming spending review.

The Cabinet Office is managing the process behind the reviews and launched the policy review pages of its website, where new presentations will be posted over the next few months.

The questions raised by MORI for the citizen forums can be found on the Cabinet Office website: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/policy_review/pr_presentation.pdf    

Presentations and more information on the policy review are available at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/policy_review/index.asp  

Source: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk   

Author: Jamie Carpenter

Taskforce calls for £50m local pot

Jamie Carpenter

Regeneration & Renewal

12.01.07

Up to £50 million a year should be provided to increase community involvement in local decision-making, a government-backed taskforce recommended this week.

The report by the Local Community Sector Taskforce – set up by the Treasury in 2004 to find ways to help community groups cope with the winding down of the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) – calls for the establishment of “community micro-grants”.

It says that grants totalling £35 million to £50 million a year between 2007-10 should be offered to community groups “to develop social capital and build community capacity, including the training of community leaders”.

The community micro-grants scheme is one of a package of measures proposed in the taskforce’s report. It also calls for £50 million to be earmarked in this year’s Comprehensive Spending Review to help community organisations engage more effectively with local strategic partnerships.

In addition, the report recommends that the Government launches a campaign to promote the benefits of community ownership and management of assets.

It also calls for the Adventure Capital Fund, an investment fund for community-led enterprises, to be expanded from its current size of £15 million to £30 million.

Taskforce member Neil Cleeveley, director of information and policy at umbrella body the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action, said: “The Government is talking a lot about community engagement – it seems to us that there ought to be something put back into the development of community organisations.”

Another taskforce member, Toby Blume, chief executive of umbrella organisation Urban Forum, welcomed the report’s recommendations, but expressed frustration over the time the taskforce had taken to report.

He said: “The taskforce was set up over two years ago to address the urgent challenge of the wind-down of the SRB. As a taskforce, we failed to address that, despite frequent strong protestations from taskforce members from the sector.”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said it will be considering the report’s recommendations as it prepares a strategy for engaging with the third sector.

– Report from the Local Community Sector Taskforce is available via www.regen.net/doc

TASKFORCE PROPOSALS

– A £35 million to £50 million a year micro-grants scheme should be created to help small bodies develop social capital and build community capacity.

– £50 million should be earmarked to help community organisations engage with local strategic partnerships.

– Further Neighbourhood Renewal Fund cash should be made available in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.

– A government campaign should be launched to promote the benefits of community ownership and asset management.

– The Adventure Capital Fund should be doubled in size to £30 million.

Author: Senscot

Galson Estate buyout seals ascendancy of community ownership

Senscot

12.01.07

With the agreed purchase of Lewis’s Galson Estate by a community buy-out yesterday, more than half of the land in the Western Isles – for centuries concentrated in the hands of private landlords – now rests in public or community ownership.

The 56,000-acre estate, which is in the North of Lewis, has a thriving Gaelic community, numbering 2,000 people living in 22 villages and more than 600 crofts. 80% of the community use Gaelic every day. The takeover is the first instance of a crofting community right to buy application coming to fruition.

Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn (the Galson Estate Trust) had applied to the Scottish Executive to purchase the common grazings on the estate under part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. A legal battle against a hostile takeover was anticipated by some, but in the end a peaceful settlement was reached with the owner, at the price of £600,000. In the place of one owner, the estate will be managed by ten elected trustees.

Norman Thomson, the chairman of the Galson Estate Trustees, said, “This is a great day for the people who live in the villages on Galson Estate. It is also a historic day for the whole of the Western Isles and for Scotland,”

Deputy Minister for Rural Development Sarah Boyack hailed the purchase as “a significant event for the Trust and the wider community in the north of Lewis. The Trust’s success demonstrates quite clearly how successful Land Reform Act can be.”

The community land movement got moving with the Assynt Crofters takeover in 1992. And since three years ago, communities have been given the right to buy their land whether or not the landlord wishes to sell, under legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament.

The Galson buy-out did not have an auspicious start. The Grahams and Macraes, the Lewis families who owned the land, initially refused even to discuss it. A leasing agreement had been reached with the power giant Amec, to site almost half of the world’s largest windfarm on the estate. A company had been formed to receive royalties form the development.

But following a legal opinion published by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, which cast doubt on the validity of such a lease. But a deal was subsequently struck with the estate under which Galson Energy would fold, and the community pay the estate 17.5% of the landlord’s share of any royalties.

A small community windfarm of up to three turbines is now planned and there are anticipated cultural and social spin-offs from the communities.

Agnes Rennie, one of the trustees and a local crofter, described Galson as the strongest Gaelic speaking community in Scotland.

“Our secondary school is the only one in the Western Isles where the roll is going up. We now have the opportunity to build businesses based on this by linking our language, history and heritage to the latest computer technology.”

Doug McAdam, chief executive of the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association, agreed the transition in recent years from private to community ownership in the Western Isles was significant.

But he added: “Only time will demonstrate whether such arrangements are truly sustainable without ongoing public sector support.”

Sources: BBC, The Herald, Scottish Executive