Steve's Newsletters

2006 July

Scottish Community Land Newsletter

July 2006

The Scottish Community Land Network (SCLN) aims to encourage and support community land sector throughout Scotland by shared experience, networking and promotion of Scottish community land initiatives.

Hi all,

This month sees Big Lottery Fund’s (BLF) Investing in Communities up and running. Though the BLF was rolled out some months ago, it was only yesterday that the National Lottery Act 2006 became legal and received the Royal Assent. We look forward to the Investing in Communities programme living up to its title.

It’s been just over a year since the newsletter was launched and we now we have 970 subscribers (and an even larger mailing list) representing hundreds of individuals, groups and interested organisations. The website has over 3000 hits a month. Thanks for all your support and contributions. Though I am not able to respond to all the emails, stories and links sent, I do follow-up and include these if at all relevant. Many thanks.

Cheers,

Steve

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News

Congratulations to the Portpatrick Trust for its success for inclusion on the Register of Community Interests in Land (RCIL)under the Community Right-to-Buy of the Land Reform Act. Unfortunately the Trust is unable to presently pursue the buyout further as the absentee landlord is unwilling to sell. The proposed buyout consists of the historic harbour and adjoining land. The harbour is at the social, economic and geographical heart of the village with the current absentee owner allowing the harbour to deteriorate to such an extent to no longer be considered an “All Tides” port.

A special congratulations for the Seton Fields Community Company for a very hard won inclusion on RCIL. This is their second attempt at registration; the first attempt was thwarted by aggressive tactics adopted by the previous landlord and ineptitude from the Scottish Executives through mishandling of the first application. The previous landlord gazumped the registration process by quickly selling the property on to two new owners. This ambitious community development would join the efforts of two communities, Port Seton and Longniddry, to preserve as an amenity, a large undeveloped 200 hundred acre site long regarded as breathing space for these communities.

Congratulation to the Neilston Development Trust, recently successful in applying for registration on the RCIL. They entered a late registration to acquire the former Clydesdale Bank building in their village. The reason for a late registration was based on the argument that it would have been counterproductive to drum up support for a registration of interest whilst the community was also campaigning to save the bank. They were able to provide evidence that they had considered registration of interest before they knew that the building was up for sale. So there is a glimmer of hope that the Scottish executive has not completely closed the door on late registrations. The project will provide a focal centre for a wide variety of community projects. See Neilston: Space to Live

And congratulation to HIE’s Strengthening Communities for winning the contract to deliver the Big Lottery Fund’s Growing Community Assets the effective replacement for the Scottish Land Fund (SLF). They will hopefully build on the Community Land Unit’s excellent Achievements on delivery of the SLF. The Scottish Land Fund is now sadly closed.

Mark Ruskell Green Party MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife has secured a commitment from Rhona Brankin Deputy Environment Minister for the Executive to review of Land Reform Act legislation and its operation. This request has arisen from many of the unsuccessful community attempts to register the community right-to-buy. Most notably the recent Stirling Sheriff Court ruling rejecting the appeal by Dunblane community group Holmehill Ltd, against a decision by the Scottish executive to refuse them the right to register a interest in the land under the legislation. The case reinforced the growing cynicism within community land sector that the Land Reform Act is failing to meet the needs of communities.

Mark Ruskell said “The original vision of the Land Reform Act was revolutionary and was about putting community control over local assets at the heart of our democracy. It is unfortunate that only a handful of communities across Scotland have actually been able to make their dreams of community ownership come true."

Community groups are urged to feed their views and experiences into the review process so that the legislation can be refined.

Crofters from Rogart are considering a Community Buyout under the Land Reform Act. Rogart crofters are part of Tressady Estate some 21,000 acres of which 98% is under crofting tenure. The estate has recently been put up for sale at £1.2M. It includes a Victorian Lodge with policy grounds, shooting, stalking and fishing rights as well as 85 crofts and common grazings.

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Woodlands & Forestry

Congratulations to North West Mull Community Woodland (NWMCW) the first community purchase of land under Forestry Commission Scotland’s National Forest Land Scheme (NFLS). The scheme allows communities to bid to buy or lease national forest land on the basis that it provides increased public benefits. NWMCW a community group from Dervaig, Islay put in a bid to buy two plantations at West Ardhu and Langamull, amounting to almost 1,750 acres. The community intends to provide increased recreational benefits, including increasing the environmental value of woodlands, providing greater opportunities for use by the community and local schools, and to investigate the opportunities for affordable housing and timber-based businesses, such as wood chips for heating. Cohn Morrison, chairman of North West Mull Community Woodland Company, said: “We are delighted that our offer to purchase Langamull and West Ardhu has been successful. It is a privilege to be the first community group to purchase land under the National Forest Land Scheme.”

The first four communities to use the nation's forests for affordable housing under the National Forest Land Scheme (NFLS) have been approved. The NFLS allows Registered Social Landlords (housing associations) and other housing bodies, supported by Communities Scotland, to purchase land from Forestry Commission Scotland at a reduced price for affordable housing. The first four are:

• Dalavich, Loch Awe: land for a proposed development by West Highland Housing Association with two homes to be offered for rent.
• Strontian, Sunart: a one house site being purchased by Highland Small Communities Housing Trust will be developed as a serviced plot to sell to someone on a lower income with a local need.
• Salen, Isle of Mull: land is being provided for a proposed development by West Highland Housing Association for eight homes for a mixture of homes for rent and low cost ownership using Communities Scotland's Homestake shared-equity initiative which allows people on low incomes get a foot on the property ladder.
• Kilmun, by Dunoon: four homes to be developed by Fyne Homes for low cost housing.

The Natiomal Forest Land Scheme has three headings under which communities can acquire Forestry Commission Land. These are:

Sponsored Sale of Surplus Land

Community Land for Affordable Housing

Examples of these two are illustrated in the previous two articles

Acquisition by purchase or lease

There are currently 3 communities awaiting final evaluation for their anticipated acquisitions:-

Birse Community Trust – Slewdrum Forest – 167 Hectares

Lagan Forest Trust - 4 forest areas – 19 Hectares

Broadford and Strath Community Co – Broad Forest – 20 Hectares

View the Community Applications

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Renewable Energy

A Dutch businessman on holiday in the Highlands noticed how sheep liked to lie on roads warmed by the day’s sunshine. From that simple observation 15 years ago, a heating system has been developed that allows car parks and roads to act as solar panels, storing energy in aquifers layers of water-bearing permeable rock. The result is a use of renewable energy that means buildings can be heated or cooled, while roads and airport runways could be kept free from ice and snow without tonnes of salt. Its inventors claim the method reduces the carbon dioxide emissions of conventional heating systems by up to 90% and doubles the life expectancy of tarmac by halving road maintenance. Invisible Heating Systems (IHS) will install the first Road Energy System its UK headquarters car park in Ullapool.

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Funding

The Big Lottery Fund’s (BLF) main support for community development is Investing in Communities which is now up and running. This will be the umbrella package holding the 4 main funding programmes:

• Dynamic Inclusive Communities
• Growing Community Assets
• Supporting 21st Century Life
• Life Transitions

For the community land sector the most useful programme will be Growing Community Assets (GCA) which equates roughly to the Scottish Land Fund except that it is available Scotland-wide. GCA is primarily for strengthening communities through acquisition and development of community assets. The GCA Programme has been explored in the new GCA Guidance Notes from BLF. The highlights include:

• Funding for technical assistance – £10,000 – £200,000 up to 100% to fully explore the possibilities of a project i.e. feasibility studies, professional fees etc.
• Funding for Asset Acquisition – £10,000 - £1,000,000 up to 100% though Partnership funding (15%) will lend weight to the application.
• Funding for Asset Development - £10,000 - £1,000,000 looking for partnership funding (25% revenue costs, 50% capital costs) - project for up to 5 years.

The main criterion for community groups to apply are:

• independent from local and central government
• asset up to benefit a specific geographical area, or a community of interest within such an area (this is new!)
• community controlled – this means that the majority of people on the management committee or board must be members of the community (good, no agency-led groups!) should ideally be elected.

When the threshold is less than £10,000 for a project it will be directed towards one of the other funds like Awards for All or Investing in Ideas. At this time the BLF is asking that all applications for all the funding programs are directed through BLF with an Outline Proposal form. This will help them decide which is the most suitable programme for your community initiative.

The Heritage Lottery Fund are holding monthly pre-application advice surgeries on the last Wednesday of the month at their office in Edinburgh. You can reserve a 45 minute slot with one of their development staff from 10.00am to 1pm and 2pm to 4.15pm. To make the best use of your slot, send brief details of your project in advance on the pre-application form.

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Bits and pieces – Ideas from all over

The latest European Small Islands Network Inter-Island Exchange Project (ESIN IIEP) will visit to the island of Gräsö in Sweden is taking place on 22nd & 23rd August 2006. The theme of the meeting is ‘Transport Conditions & the Small Islands of Europe’. The meeting is being hosted by the National Association for the Swedish Archipelago and European Small Islands Federation (ESIN). To be eligible for a funded place you must:

• represent a community group or organisation based on or working with island communities;
• be involved in a project relevant to the theme of the visit;
• demonstrate that your participation in the visit will be of benefit to your local community / group / organisation;
• show that you will be able to disseminate the findings of the visit to a broad audience.

For more information contact Lisa Stephens. The closing date for applications is Friday 14th July 2006.

The Development Trust Association (DTA) has published a new guide to asset-based development for community and social enterprises. This is the ABC’s for asset-based community developments (ABCD). Obtain a hard copy contact from Aileen or download a PDF version. See the full list of publications by DTAS and DTA.

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A View from the Hills

I believe that community regeneration and social enterprise is helping to reconnect communities with democracy, albeit at a very local level. I feel like many others, totally disenfranchised and cynical about politics and government at all levels, be it Local Authority, Scottish or UK. It came as a pleasant surprise that at least our backbench MSPs on the Environment and Rural Development Committee seem to be listening. The Stage 1 Report on the Crofting Reform Bill was recently published and very genuinely reflected the witnesses abhorrence at what was being put before crofters as reform. It intimately recognised, within the crofting community, the depth of frustration and long-standing dissatisfaction expressed by witnesses not happy with the way crofting had been regulated and supported over recent years. And just one week before the report was issued the primary author of the Draft Bill, Shane Rankin, was given a lateral promotion in the Scottish Executive, and he resigned giving up the helm of the Crofters Commission. I suspect that other heads will roll. The Legislation is to be thoroughly redrafted. We can make a difference.

So what has this got to do with the community land sector other than the obvious relationship of community crofting estates? As time has passed I have seen too much evidence to suggest that the Land Reform Act is not going to be the hoped for panacea for community land reform. It seems that the process is heavily weighed to landlords, that ministerial direction will play too large a part in final decisions and that such a tightly confined bureaucratic process does not recognise that communities by their nature are reactive not proactive. This leaves only a small handful of lucky or very persistent communities able to achieve community ownership. My hope is that the upcoming review of the Land Reform Act will allow those communities that have failed, and those still aspiring, to be heard. And the Land Reform Act will be come to be the visionary reform that the original authors hoped for. Let’s hear your voices!

View the press releases on the Stage 1 Report on the Crofting Reform Bill from the Scottish Crofting Foundation or the Scottish Parliament

etc.

Thanks to contributions from Sandra Holmes, Ilona Traut, Neil Gerrard, Diana Campbell, Hugh Donaldson, Cameron Maxwell, Emma Chapman, Lisa Stephens,

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