Scotland: National Rural Network
This is the second part of the event report from the Scottish National Rural Network regional event in East Renfrewshire. The event took place in the Glen Halls in Neilston on 4th February 2010. In this part you can find out about four project presentations and the facilitated discussion session. In part one, you can find out about project updates on LEADER and Rural Priorities and the Scottish National Rural Network.
Councillor Tony Buchanan was Chair for the afternoon session of the event. Introducing the project presentations, he stressed the importance of such projects. He said funding will be cut sharply in the next few years, so we need to start tapping into the monies that are available.
Michael Roy, a director of the East Renfrewshire Community Enterprise Trust (ERCET) gave a presentation on building capacity for community renewables in the area. ERCET is a non-profit community interest company. The board is a mix of private, third sector and academia.
Mr Roy said there was lots of potential for community renewables and lots of examples throughout Scotland. Many community groups are adding renewable devices to their community buildings to reduce costs and generate income in the longer term. Mr Roy asked why there weren't more community projects in East Renfrewshire. He said it had nothing to do with capability but might be about accessing expertise and having the time to realise the vision.
Mr Roy announced that a Community Energy Conference will be held in East Renfrewshire on 31st March 2010, probably in Eaglesham. The event will bring together funders and case studies from across Scotland.
ERCET will help communities to get to a stage where taking on a community renewables project becomes easier. For example they will help groups organise themselves into a voluntary organisation/development trust.
Funding has come from East Renfrewshire LEADER and Community Energy Scotland for a small, pilot project of around £15,000. ERCET hope to indentify groups from East Renfrewshire who could benefit from the support they can offer. The aim is to have four Community And Renewable Energy Scheme projects. Mr Roy said they would learn from the project, and it would act as a stimulus.
Mr Roy urged interested groups to get in touch. His email address is michael.roy@ercet.org.uk
Pauline Gallacher from the Neilston Development Trust gave an inspiring presentation about the work of the organisation, and it wasn't easy to squeeze all that has been done into a short time slot! Ms Gallacher said Neilston was an ordinary place, and this was something they rejoiced in.
In January 2004, they launched their strategy in the Glen Halls. It was all about sustainable development and community ownership. It wasn't just about physical regeneration but about people, so there was a strong cultural dimension. They wanted to make Neilston a better place to live. The 'Neilston Renaissance Town Charter' is a document owned by the people of Neilston and sets out their vision for the next 20 years.
In 2006, the Neilston Development Trust was successful in acquiring the old Clydesdale Bank as a community asset. They established a volunteer team, and Ms Gallacher highlighted that almost everyone involved is a volunteer. The bank serves as a focus for the Trust's activities. Ms Gallacher gave a brief overview of some of them including a community cafe, craft classes, young people's activities, cookery classes and plans for a credit union.
The Trust is also now involved in a community wind farm project that will deliver profits to the community. They are waiting to here from planning if this will get the go ahead. Thanks to the Climate Challenge Fund they have a Powerdown Officer who is working on a Neilston carbon reduction programme. On 20th March 2010 they will be holding a Powerdown Liven Up community event.
East Renfrewshire LEADER funding helped to renovate and resource the Bank. Ms Gallacher thanked LEADER. They were the first funder to commit and this encourages other funders to get involved. And unlike other funders they know the people who have made the decision.
Ms Gallacher said the key features of their project were:
She finished by picking out some key points that would be relevant to other rural communities, particularly small towns/villages and hinterland:
Paul Kane, Kelvin Valley LEADER Coordinator, gave a whirlwhind tour of the LEADER programme in their area. He began by saying there are striking similarities between Kelvin Valley and East Renfrewshire. Kelvin Valley has LEADER money for the first time, and the scale of the money is similar.
In contrast to many of the other LEADER areas, East Renfrewshire is 15 mintues from the Silverburn Shopping Centre and Kelvin Valley is 15 miles from the country's busiest motorway.
The Kelvin Valley LEADER area covers two local authority areas - North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire. This covers Croy, Lennoxtown, Kilsyth, Milton of Campsie, Kirkintilloch and Twechar. Key features in the area are the Forth and Clyde Canal and the Antonine Wall, which has World Heritage status.
The programme launched in October 2008. The area was awarded £560,000 and most of this is committed. They have had three rounds, with 20 projects funded. Two of these have been completed. They will fund up to 50 percent of a project, but Kelvin Valley LEADER also decided to introduce a minimum grant of £5,000 and a maximum of £50,000. Mr Kane said this had created a good spread of projects.
The types of projects included Marketing and Tourism, Environment and Training, with some overlaps. They also had a range of applicants from small community groups to larger NGOs and local authorities. Mr Kane said he hadn't noticed a direct correlation between the size of a group and their ability to access the funding.
Mr Kane said the pitfalls of the programme included too many expectations and an administrative burden. Successful projects bring cohesion to the area and brought people together.
You can find our more by visiting the Kelvin Valley LEADER website and downloading Paul Kane's presentation from our documents library.
Gillian Barrie from Central Scotland Forest Trust gave a very interesting presentation about the Access to the Antonine Wall project, a project from the Kelvin Valley LEADER programme. The Antonine Wall is a defensive structure built by the Romans around 140AD. It is 60km long and is a turf rampart fronted by a great ditch. Every three km there was a fort. In 2008, the site was awarded World Heritage status and is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire heritage sites which also include Hadrian's Wall.
World Heritage status raised the profile of the Antonine Wall among the five local authorities it runs through, with landowners and community groups. They wondered how they could attract more visitors and get benefit from the site. Expectations were raised, but stakeholders including Central Scotland Forest Trust saw that there were barriers to accessing the site. These barriers were physical, but also about interpretation - how do you learn about the wall?
The wall is not linear in nature and it is patchy. Ms Barrie said that along much of the wall you wouldn't even know it was there. And the quality of the landscape is not very good around the wall.
The Access to the Antonine Wall LEADER project is a pilot project on a stretch of the wall between Twechar and Croy, and across two local authorities. This part of the wall was chosen as there are really active communities in this area. They wanted to talk to communities, to find out what the wall meant to people and to ask what they would like to develop around the wall.
Ms Barrie ran through the achievements so far. These include:
The asset map and a final report will be produced and there will be a celebratory event on 10th April 2010. This will springboard community action. Ms Barrie said they would like to replicate the process in other parts of the wall.
You can find out more by downloading the Access to the Antonine Wall presentation.
Following a networking lunch, delegates took part in a discussion session facilitated by SCVO's Sheila Fraser.
Groups discussed lots of innovative and inspiring projects taking place in their areas. The session was lively with lots of successful projects and the potential for others being discussed.
At the end of the session groups were left with post-it notes with very brief descriptions of the many stories that had been told. The group as a whole were asked to identify themes that had emerged during discussion, and then post-its were arranged accordingly.
The themes that emerged were:
Stories that were highlighted during the session included the potential income to Neilston from the community energy project (they are waiting to see if it will get the go ahead), midnight football in neighbouring region Renfrewshire, and the potential of the Scout's Lapwing Lodge to be a great asset to the area.
During the discussion session in the afternoon, a number of successful projects involving young people were highlighted as being inspirational. These included midnight football in the neighbouring Renfrewshire area and a litter clean up. Have you been involved in an innovative project that engages with young people? You can share your stories in the Inspirational projects involving young people discussion forum.
The East Renfrewshire event is one of 20 events taking place throughout the country as part of the Scottish National Rural Network. You can find out about events still to take place in our Regional Events page and in our Rural Network Regional Events archive you can find presentations, photos and event reports from previous events.
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