Ar Talamh – Ar Coimhearsnachd – Ar n-Àm
Our Land - Our Communities – Our Time
Scottish Community Land Newsletter – January/February 2007
The Scottish Community Land Network (SCLN) aims to encourage, support and inspire the community land sector in Scotland through shared experience, networking and promotion of Scottish community land initiatives. - Current circulation - 1606
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Hi All,
The community land sector is growing in all terms. I feel that with Galson buyout coming hot on the heels of South Uist, buyouts have reached a certain maturity and have become mainstream rather than exceptional. Maybe we have reached a tipping point where communities have an expectation rather than a hope that they will be able to grasp their destiny in their own hands with their own land. It is -
“Ar Talamh – Ar Coimhearsnachd – Ar n-Àm”
“Our Land - Our Communities – Our Time”
In the Western Isles alone over 40% of the land and 70 % of the population lies in community owned land and the majority of the rest of the land including Pairc, Barvas, Soval, the Harris Machair Villages and Uig and Hamnaway are all possible contenders for community buyouts.
Good Luck with all your projects.
Cheers,
Steve
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“The Land is Ours” rang out yet again; this time for Ness. On the 12th January the Old New Year was rung in with the Latha Mor Ghabhsainn by Ghabhsainn Oighreachd Urras; the community taken possession of their land. Galson hosted over a hundred visitors with a big event incorporating, a formal exchange of deeds at Galson Farm, a symbolic Sassines, of earth and stone, a reminder that this is community’s responsibility is about earth not just acres. There was a formal presentation with some impassioned speeches and a moving historical recreation. All top off by a ceilidh for the whole family. A regular feature of these buyout celebrations is rough weather and not to be outdone Galson arranged a gale, pouring rain and to outdo the rest, a power cut. This happened half way through the dramatic recreation of the Galson farm land raid. The Ness Players ably led by Domhnall Ruadh never even missed a breath, carrying on through the dimmed surroundings, only adding gravity to the drama and the moment.
The community has regained what it lost over 400 years ago. This includes 56,000 acres of land, a community of over 2,000 souls, young, vigorous and Gaelic speaking. They live in 22 crofting townships consisting of 600 crofts. More importantly the community has gained the ability to change its future, integrating the whole community’s aspirations and hopes and consolidating them with all that is already good about Galson. For a summing up of Galson’s past, present and future read Agnes Rennie’s heartfelt speech in Featured CLI - Ghabhsainn Oighreachd Urras
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The SCVO’s Scottish Rural Services Conference is heading to Stornoway for the 6th & 7th March. The theme of this year's conference is Learning About Rural Services, which is being interpreted in the broadest possible sense - the mainstream learning agenda, research into service-related issues, exchange of good practice - and plain, old-fashioned networking.
The speakers are Professor Mark Shucksmith of Newcastle University, who has a long history of research on the rural services agenda and has also been appointed as Chair of the Inquiry into Crofting; David Green, the Principal of Lews Castle College who has coalface experience of the learning agenda in rural areas; Dr Geoff Fagan of CADISPA at Strathclyde University; and a still-to-be-confirmed Minister from the Scottish Executive. For further info contact Norman MacAskill or 01463 226503.
Sarah Boyack was recently appointed as Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs. She replaces Rhona Brankin who has become Minister for Communities.
Sarah served on the first Scottish Cabinet as Minister for Transport, Environment and Planning from May 1999 to November 2001. prevoiuosly she was convener of the Scottish Parliament Environment and Rural Development Committee (that gave the damning review of the Crofting Reform Bill) as well as Joint Convener of the Cross Party Group on Renewable Energy.
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Woodlands & Forestry
The Knoydart Forest Trust recently won £220,907 funding from the Big Lottery Fund’s Investing in Communities Fund for a community woodland project.
The Knoydart Forest Trust will use its award for the Forest Access and Regeneration Project. This will improve the landscape of 17,000 acres of local community woodland and will provide better public access for locals and visitors to the Knoydart Peninsula in Lochaber. The project will provide a woodland management scheme and construct a range of recreational facilities in the forest including a mountain bike trail, extended path networks, a play zone orienteering, wild camping sites and viewpoints. This will directly benefit one hundred local residents and up to ten thousand users of the woodland facilities. It is also hoped that the project will attract visitors resulting in increased spending in the local area and the regeneration of local businesses and community run social enterprises.
Grant Holroyd, Community Forest Manager, Knoydart Forest Trust said: “This is great news which comes at just the right time for us and underpins what we have been aspiring to for the last two years. We will now be able to convert the forest into more mixed woodland which will provide added public, social and environmental benefits for the whole community.”
Congratulations to Culag Community Woodland Trust for winning the Working Together for Tourism Award in recognition of the all abilities path project at Little Assynt. Awarded by The Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards, it was awarded for best practice in collaborative and partnership schemes. Also Foula Heritage Trust won the Community Award for Green Highland and Islands.
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The very large scale renewable projects planned for west coast of the Highlands and Islands will have to wait for up to 10 years for even the possibility of a national Grid Connection if all the various planning consents are approved. If the Beauly-Denny upgrade is approved (earliest late 2008) there will still be up to 3 years construction. In addition it has not been decided if the preferred Beauly to Ullapool link will also have to go to public inquiry. All the more reason for communities to concentrate on human scale projects with community determined outcomes and with 100% of the benefit to the community. That has to be better than a charity share of some remote corporate entity that does not have to live with these projects.
HICEC will shortly be an independent social enterprise company. Its remit is to assist communities in developing renewable energy schemes, either to save money for community projects or to be outright income generators. It is a first to support the use community renewable energy to support broader community development. It has been planned from the beginning to become independent of HIE and this will hopefully be achieved early this year.
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The Scottish Biomass Support Scheme is aimed at promoting the biomass (primarily wood-fuel) sector in Scotland. Money is given for installations – including eligible kit/pipe work and boiler plant and infrastructure directly related to developing the woodfuel/biomass supply chain. A total of £7.5milllion is available until March 2008. There is a maximum grant of £400k. For installation, 40% of additional costs (50% for SMEs) compared with conventional systems are eligible. For the supply side, up to 40% of additional costs of entering the biomass supply chain may be paid. Public and private formally constituted organisations based in Scotland are eligible. For further details contact: SBSS Administration or Tel 01349 860 919
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Conference of Community Land Initiative Workers
6th & 7th February @ Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Sleat, Isle of Skye
Community and Co-operative Responses to Climate Change:
The Scottish Co-operative/Highlands & Islands Community Energy Company
21 February 1200-1630 @ The Green House, Beechwood Business Park North, Inverness
Rural Housing Service Conference 2007 - Sustainable Rural Futures
22/23 February 2007 @ The Birnam Institute, Birnam, By Dunkeld
SCVO’s Scottish Rural Services Conference
6th & 7th March @ Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
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Isle of Kerrera Residents Association – Coordinator
For Kerrera Sustainable Development Plan
Knoydart Forest Trust - Community Forester
An energetic and enthusiastic person to assist with a wide range of woodland,
timber and public access tasks. £16,500 - £18,500
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8/9
Feb and 15/16 Mar – Sustaining Ecosystems
New CPD/lifelong
learning course from the Centre for
Human Ecology in partnership with Strathclyde University. A 10 week course
based around two, 2-day workshops in Glasgow (8/9 Feb and 15/16 Mar) plus
private study. Ecosystems - from upland forests to coastal marshes -
regulate and maintain the conditions on earth suitable for life, providing us
with the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, the water to irrigate our crops
and the insects to pollinate them. Are we putting these functions at risk? Are
we destroying the systems that have supported earth's biodiversity/nature for
millions of years? Do we really understand and appreciate the importance of
nature to our livelihood and well-being? What is being done to lessen our
impacts? for further information contact: jennifer.batty@che.ac.uk or www.che.ac.uk
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Bits and pieces – Ideas from all over
As the founder and driving force behind the Green Belt Movement, the hugely successful grassroots tree planting programme, Wangari Maathai is the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Her vision and energy has placed her among the top ten environmental campaigners of all time. Wangari Maathai launches BGCI’s 20th Anniversary celebrations with a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society on Thursday 8th February, 2007. For further details download flyer
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Featured CLI – Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn (Galson Trust)
I could do this story no better justice than to print Agnes Rennie’s speech, as recorded directly at the event, which so eloquently and passionately expresses the mood and thoughts of the whole community on Latha Mor Ghabhsainn. It wholly encapsulates Galson’s heritage, its present and its aspirational hopes. So here it is!
Latha Mor Ghabhsainn
An teid thu leam mo nighean donn
èirigh agus tuiginn leam
Thoir dhomh do làmh s na cuir ann dàil
Gun dean sinn tàmh an Gabhsann.
Briathran a bhard agus e coimhead air adhart ri laithean geala an Gabhsann as deidh uamhasan cogaidh agus fuadaichean – agus c’aite eile ach Gabhsann!
Tha mi fhein agus gach Urrasair air Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn lan moit gun d’fhuair sinn air an la an-diugh a thoirt gu buil
AGUS gun urrainn dhan a choimhearsnachd againn a radh airson a cheud uair
“s ann leinn fhein a tha an Oighreachd”
Air a smuainicheas mi air an stri a rinn ar sinnsearan airson cosnadh an Fhearann tha fhios agam gum biodh iad cho moiteal as na tha gabhail aite an seo an diugh.
I am so Proud to be here today to celebrate this momentous day for our community,
Proud to have had the privilege of working with my colleagues on the Board of Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn to make community ownership a reality for the people of Galson Estate.
And Proud to live in a community that can inspire our young people to write as they have done for their exhibition here today.
And last night at midnight as the newsreader on radio Scotland lead with the words
“and later today the people of the community of Galson Estate in Lewis will take ownership of the land” my heart was fit to burst, and I thought yes its true!!!
The first meetings to consider looking into the potential of a community buy-out were held 4 years ago and the steering group was formed in November 2002. They progressed things to the forming of the Trust in November 2004 when an incredible 30 nominations were received leading to the election of 10 trustees. We then proceeded with a Part 3 application with an unwilling seller under the Community Right to Buy as set out in the Land Reform act of 2003. That legislation also demanded that all efforts were made to proceed with an amicable agreement and in October 2005 we presented the details of a sale agreement to a packed meeting in the Dell hall. That night there was a 94% vote in favour of proceeding with the buyout and we have taken that mandate forward to take us to where we are today.
The symbolism of the events that have taken place this afternoon, here and in Galson,
are a profound affirmation of the historical context for what the community has achieved today.
Earlier today I was given a copy of the sale document that was produced in London in 1924 to sell the Island of Lewis. Galson Estate is listed as Lot No8 and after all the fishings and shootings are described there is one line to mention the crofts. The rest, as they say, is history and Galson Estate was sold to a Stornoway businessman whose family have owned it until today. Galson village was broken into crofts and as my grandmother recalled describing what it was like coming to Galson village in 1924 “ we brought all our possessions, we were not coming on a temporary basis”
Like my grandmother I have no plans to leave and I know that most people living in this community have no plans to leave. They have chosen to live here. Together we can work together to make this community strong in every sense;
So that people can choose to live here
choose to be educated here
and choose to work here.
Lets not pretend that these things will happen overnight; some people quite rightly ask “what will be different when I wake up tomorrow”?
And the answer is very little in the first instance - that you will be able to see anyway. BUT we can begin to plan and develop ideas knowing that from today the land belongs to the community and that is a profound difference.
As an Fhearann documents the story of crofting from the time of the Crofters Act of 1886 to the great developments of community ownership that have taken place during the last 20 years. Take time later to look at it and then realise that from today you, the people of Galson estate, are part of that story. 100 years from now the generations who will be the future of this community will create their own exhibition and recall the events that took place here today, but for today the name of Galson estate is now part of that exhibition.
This estate is made up of over 50,000 acres of un-spoilt, unpolluted land, a precious machair and peat-land that is recognized throughout the world for its natural heritage value. Above all else crofting management of the land has ensured this.
We have a rich cultural heritage of songs and stories and music and we can claim that some 80% of the population can speak Gaidhlig.
We have excellent schools producing confident young people who are already, and will continue, to invigorate this community and who will be our proud ambassadors wherever they go.
Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn will work to develop crofting for today’s world.
We will work with UHI and others to develop new technologies
And we will explore with others all opportunities to encourage appropriate economic development and affordable housing.
Of course we have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but what an opportunity?
And we can do as the best things in this community are always done
We can work together.
Adhartas le cheile.
For the full live action sequence of the speech, see the video clip!
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For relative links, resources or community groups see the respective links at SCLN Links, SCLN Resources or SCLN Community Groups
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Current circulation - 1606
Thanks to contributions from Neil Gerrard, Diane Campbell, Agnes Rennie, Pamela Noble,
Dr John MacLeod, Jane Henry, Derek Logie, Caran Werfel, Grant Holyrood, Andy Crabb
This newsletter has been generously funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Lomond & Rural Stirling Leader+ and North Highland Leader+
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The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are for general information and do not represent those of the Community Land Unit, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Lomond & Rural Stirling Leader+ or North Highland Leader+
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