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22 Jan 2019

Ian Baxter, Board Member of BEFS asks, is behaviour change the next strategic challenge for the heritage sector?

The Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS) recently ran a workshop to explore aspects of prioritisation within the heritage sector. This was related to a Historic Environment Scotland work stream arising from a commitment within the last SNP Manifesto to explore funding priorities for public monies within the historic built environment, in order to ensure the dwindling pot of available public monies go to where they are most needed / effective. The workshop also allied to a decade-old collaborative thought experiment which I have been undertaking in a slightly ad hoc way with Dr Simon Gilmour, Director of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. This has, over an extended period, sought to investigate scenario planning approaches and long-term horizon scanning (sometimes called futurology) for the sector. The use and applicability of such futures-oriented approaches are intimately linked through policy direction and strategic organisational intentions to funding streams and decision-making mechanisms. They also try to understand how and why organisations behave in the way they do, responding to external drivers affecting their operational and policy environments. This in turn affects the way they interact with each other; and collectively across organisations, the way the sector as whole focuses its attention on specific issues at certain points in time.

Details of the recent workshop and the resultant discussion are reported elsewhere via the usual BEFS communication channels, but in reflecting on the day, and via wider discussion within the workshop co-ordinating team, it is worth trying to step back and consider macro-challenges which will influence the prioritisation debate as it moves forward. Bringing together the sector to try and create a matrix of funding priorities sounds entirely reasonable as an effective tactical response within a wider strategic movement to prioritise what we do with an asset base which we cannot realistically look after in its entirety. Sector wide applicability of a single tool, or even agreement of a single approach to using a flexible toolkit in organisations with different aims and priorities, divergent stakeholder views, and widely varied interests in sub-sets of the heritage asset base may be too big a challenge to contemplate in practice though. But, if theoretically it is a good idea, what really stops us from doing it?

The reasons we can’t are complex and relate to organisational and stakeholder autonomy, and a set of behaviours, both individual and organisational, which can hardwire nervousness of the unacceptability of monolithic behaviour; instil worry about a democratic deficit in decision-making; exacerbate tensions to do with perceptions of exclusivity and inclusivity; and worry about the prospect of change with foreseen or unforeseen consequences that we don’t like the sound of, even before we know what it might be.

Individually and collectively within the sector we already recognise a wide set of macro level issues both as consideration or sometimes as threat: these include issues like climate change, stakeholder inclusion and emergent ideas like intergenerational equity. We are already thinking and discussing the ways in which they may affect the historic environment generally and how we can incorporate them or mitigate against them, and thus protect assets we want to save and/or pass to the next generation. We also already conceptualise and manage the micro issues, on a daily basis within our personal and organisational forms – as professionals and agents / having agency within a specific sector forming part of a bigger ecosystem of planning and managing the environment around us. The mid-range, however, that gap between the big concepts and the micro objects/actions – the realm of behavioural systems – is one that we still struggle with, and I would argue that in order to move things forward collectively both better understanding of behaviours, and subtle behaviour change is perhaps the next strategic challenge to engage with.

What do I mean by ‘behaviour change’ as a strategic approach? Well, listening to the various stakeholders expressing their views in the prioritisation discussion, I was struck by the thoughtful and deeply analytical ways in which all of the individuals present engaged with the process of sifting ideas on the heritage asset base and its need, and by consequence where/how we might prioritise that need. Alternative views on issues were chewed over; viewpoints were balanced; and ultimately, consensus was reached collectively within the room, perhaps surprisingly, with many items flagged for higher or lower prioritisation. What we didn’t do however was fully articulate why we individually, organisationally, and ultimately collectively, took particular stances, and how those stances might have changed or might change in any period of time. We didn’t put ourselves in others’ shoes (professionally), as we perhaps assumed we understood the stance of an architect versus a planner, or an archaeologist versus an advocator implicitly. I would argue that assumed implicit understanding or tacit knowledge holds us back, as our professional and organisational identities still mask and influence what we say or are prepared to say to foreground motivations for our behaviour in the present. For example, why as an academic in the workshop did I de-prioritise the funding for academic study in the matrix? Why did nobody challenge me on this? What was I thinking? Was I betraying my own profession, or was I making a stance as part of a projected persona, trying to be some kind of enfant terrible of the afternoon, disrespecting something I should be defending to the hilt?

I am not saying we need to laboriously psychoanalyse the way we talk about and respond in our professional consideration of heritage in workshop situations, but I do think that we might explore our behaviour in order to better recognise and articulate our individual and corporate behaviours. In essence we need to be much clearer about the ‘mid range’ linkage between individual stakeholders and the big issues. We need to be much more open about the tacit knowledge we use, that which isn’t codified. We need to re-identify and flag the drivers which influence us individually and corporately, and how these have changed and will change again. Organisational and professional expectations (whether it is related to professional standards or institutional mission) affect subtly the way in which individuals collectively discuss, disagree and arrive at consensus. These influences change over time, and what was foremost in our individual or organisational mindsets at the time of writing Our Place in Time (for example), may not be the most pressing issues to address now. I don’t think we would have had a workshop outcome of consensus in the same way a couple of years ago, or longer – so what has caused us to behave in this way right now?

Discussion abounded in the room about what we did care about and what is of less interest. I think we need to be bolder and braver about admitting what and why things do and don’t concern us any more, and how the concerns change subtly but relatively quickly from one year to the next. A broader consideration of the way in which we frame our responses to consultations, and foregrounding the current drivers which affect the way in which we engage with heritage issues would, I think, help to bridge the micro and the macro – to build and articulate better the ‘mid range’ thinking which links the consideration of the day to day operational challenges against the grand challenges which the wider world faces, and where we try to deploy effective management of the historic environment in order to add value to the world we live in, and explain fully the decisions we make now for those that come after.

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16 Jan 2019

Bill Pagan, Board member of BEFS, and founding Board member of Cupar Development Trust, updates us on progress in Cupar.

In the past three years, Cupar Development Trust (CDT) has achieved funding for the town from Scottish Government, Fife Council, Big Lottery, Heritage Lottery Fund, Fife LEADER and others, totalling nearly £150,000. Following the CharrettePlus, led by PAS in 2016, an Interpretive Plan was published in 2017. At the end of 2018, the first two staff members joined CDT’s team.

During 2018, three new initiatives took place, independently of the CDT. First, the University of St Andrews received funding to catalogue the archive of the Royal Burgh of Cupar from 1364 to 1975. The archive has been held by the University for some time, and has been available to researchers, but this project, due to be completed by the end of this year, will provide a catalogue available to search on line. This will make an exciting addition to Cupar’s Interpretive Plan (IP).

Second, Fife Council instructed an archaeological dig on the town’s Moot Hill. This area, the site of Cupar’s early Courts from 12^th – 16^th centuries, had never been explored before. In fact, few in the town knew it was the site of the Courts/Moots, since the street signs refer to “Moat Hill”. At first, the dig produced only some relatively routine medieval and later artefacts. Then, on the last day, lower levels produced cremated human bones, which are now back from carbon dating:

ARCHAS Archaeology reported: “We were able to extract a small sample of the cremated bone which has been Radiocarbon dated to approximately 1750 BC, roughly the transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age nearly 4000 years ago. Although only a small part of this large feature was investigated it is very likely that what was revealed is a Bronze Age Cremation pit in the centre of Cupar. It is also highly probable that there will be other similar features located close to the pit already identified as these features are often found in small clusters.”

This exciting result provides evidence of Cupar being an ancient settlement, whereas previously historians had started the Fife story with assumptions about the Celts being defeated by the Romans. Funding is now being sought for a further dig in 2019.

Third, Cupar was chosen by Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) for the Scottish Government’s Digital Towns Pilot – the first in the country. The town centre is now being established as a “Digital Improvement District” (DID). At the end of the experimental period, ABCD, Cupar’s Businesses Association, hopes that the pilot will have persuaded a majority of businesses in the town centre to support it into the future, and contribute to it, as is the established formula for BIDs.

So what was CDT doing in 2018? Much effort went into raising funding, and what a process this is – especially when done by volunteers! But when successful, morale lifts instantly and the positive publicity raises awareness in the town. I am delighted to report that the Board of CDT managed to secure some important funding in 2018.

With encouragement and support from Fife Council, CDT successfully secured a Fife LEADER grant to cover the costs for two staff members from November 2018 to December 2019. Fife Council then topped up the grant, and the two staff are now funded until the end of March 2020. We now enjoy the benefit of a Community Projects Co-ordinator, and an Administration & Finance Officer.

They will make very important contributions to the delivery of the Interpretive Plan (IP). The Working Group for the delivery of the IP includes representatives of the Community Council, Cupar Heritage, Cupar Businesses’ Association, local Tourist interests, and CDT.

The first projects of the plan are generically entitled “Classic Cupar”. Where they involve research and interpretation, the results will be uploaded to a digital archive for Cupar, using “CMCFlow”, the digital asset management system developed and maintained by CMC Associates.

“Classic Cupar 1”, grant funded by HLF, will provide a digital archive of local heritage collections. It will be delivered by a partnership among CDT, Cupar Heritage, and CMC Associates.
“Classic Cupar 2”, a discrete part of ‘Digital Cupar’, will build a calendar of past, current and future events in the town. This will contribute both to the town’s history and to the co-ordination of events organised by Cupar’s many thriving organisations.
“Classic Cupar 3”, funded by National Lottery Awards for All, reflects the determination that the delivery of Cupar’s Interpretive Plan will be inclusive – important in a town whose population includes the elderly and the less able. It will deliver a new community event – a festival for children with special needs and their carers. The project will be delivered by a partnership between Kilmaron Special School and CDT.

Other events, not formally part of Classic Cupar, support the IP’s objectives. For example, a cheerful tea party for some of Cupar’s longest-established residents, designed to gather information on the history of Cupar’s shops, produced so much detail, boosted by memorable anecdotes, that putting even a summary of it into a form suitable for CMCFlow is proving a mammoth task! The history of Cupar’s shops, and these anecdotes, complement an independent research project by Cupar Heritage, who have commissioned Lindsay Lennie, an authority on historic shopfronts in Scotland, to carry out an architectural survey of some 25 shopfronts in the town.

It is clear that 2018 was a busy year for those planning for events and activity in Cupar. The aim for 2019 is to start actual delivery – and to plan ahead for major events in 2022. More on that later!

Cupar Interpretive Plan

You can follow progress via www.cuparcould.com, Twitter , Instagram and Facebook.

A website for Classic Cupar is coming soon!

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20 Dec 2018

Get The Latest Built Environment News, Events, Vacancies, Consultations And Publications In Our News Bulletin.

BEFS News

The Scottish Government has published the Draft Budget for 2019-20. Historic Environment Scotland’s grant will be reduced by 3.2% but this is anticipated to be balanced by a 4.6% increase in income. A Town Centre Fund of £50m is being created to “invest in inclusive growth which supports town centres to become more diverse and sustainable”, delivered through local authorities. Planning Development will receive an increase of 26% in support of planning reform but this increase includes resource previously allocated to administration. Architecture and Design Scotland’s budget remains static as does Planning and Environmental Appeals and Scottish Natural Heritage. Creative Scotland’s budget is reduced by 6%. The Scottish Parliament will likely vote on the budget in February. Full details.

The Scottish Government has published the results from the latest housing conditions survey. Key findings include that 50% of all of Scotland’s homes have disrepair to critical elements (which refers to weather tightness and structural stability). 68% of all of Scotland’s traditionally built homes (pre-1919) have disrepair to critical elements, compared with 67% in 2016. 40.3% of all dwellings failed to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, compared with 44.7% in 2016.

The Scottish Government is encouraging all stakeholders to respond to the Migration Advisory Committee call for evidence on the Shortage Occupation List.

Historic Environment Scotland are asking for your views on the content and functionality of two Managing Change in the Historic Environment Guidance Notes: the Demolition and the Use and Adaptation of Listed Buildings.

BEFS recent Historic Environment Working Group (HEWG) focused on a workshop gathering responses to the HES Historic Environment Policy Consultation (which closed at the start of December). The responses from this well attended workshop were synthesised into a formal consultation response, which can be found here.

Graham Simpson MSP has kindly sponsored the Tenement Maintenance Parliamentary Reception taking place on Wednesday 16 January 2019. Further details on how to book on can be found here.

Rebecca Tenant, Chair Landscape Institute Scotland, calls for a united approach to landscape, place & change to ensure that Scotland’s landscapes are embedded in our communities, in our first blog this week.

Ewan Allinson reflects on asymmetries of power and tensions between conservation and community interests, following BEFS Community Empowerment and Landscape event, in our second blog.

In our final guest blog following this event, Andrew Ormston, Director and Lead Consultant at Drew Wylie Projects, discusses the cultural value of land.

Katherine Pollard, Policy Officer, Scottish Land Commission, explores the potential of Compulsory Sale Orders to be a powerful instrument to help tackle the blight of vacant and derelict sites in Scotland, in our fourth blog this week.

At our AGM earlier this month, BEFS wished Graeme Purves a fond farewell following four years as BEFS Chair. We would like to thank him for his enthusiasm, expertise and support of the team.

We would also like to welcome our new Chair, Iain McDowall, who chaired his first BEFS Board meeting last week. Iain has a wealth of experience in the built environment as a Chartered Surveyor as well as in governance. Further details and a short bio can be found here. We welcome him to the team and look forward to working together.

We also welcome our newest Board member, Sarah Kettles.

Finally, team BEFS would like to wish you a very merry festive season and a fantastic start to 2019!

Consultations

The Demolition and The Use and Adaptation of Listed Buildings (HES)
This consultation will close at 6pm on Friday 15 February 2019.

Commonhold Consultation (Law Commission 10/12/18)
Opened 10 December 2018 and closes on 10 March 2019.

Construction and Scotland’s Economy – Call for Views (SP 06/12/18)
The closing date for receipt of submissions is Wednesday 13 February 2019.

Publications

A Connected Scotland: Our strategy for tackling social isolation and loneliness and building stronger social connections (SG 18/12/18)

Energy Performance Certificates: An Alternative Approach (Common Weal 17/12/18)

FixMyStreet! The geography of citizen reporting on neighbourhood issues in the UK report (Research my society 11/12/18)

Investigation of Potential Land Value Tax Policy – Options for Scotland (SLC 10/12/18)

Land Focus: Land Value Tax Briefing Paper (SLC 10/12/18)

Heritage Lottery Fund Policy Directions (DCMS 07/12/18)

Pro-Poor or Pro-Rich? The social impact of local government budgets, 2016-17 to 2018-19 (SPICe 07/12/18)

Housing Conditions Survey 2017 (SG 04/12/18)

House of the rising son (or daughter) – Housing, Wealth and Debt (Resolution Foundation 04/12/18)

The case for reforming private renting: Interim report (IPPR 04/12/18)

Local authority land acquisition in Germany and the Netherlands: are there lessons for Scotland? (SLC 03/12/18)

Building for the Baby Boomers (Policy Exchange 03/12/18)

Brexit and the UK’s environmental ambitions (IPPR 30/11/18)

Increasing the Supply of Social Housing: What are the current options? (Class 26/11/18)

Housing supply requirements across Great Britain: for low-income households and homeless people (Crisis UK 11/18)

Scottish Government News Releases

Tackling social isolation and loneliness (SG 18/12/18)
Scotland has become one of the first countries in the world to develop a national strategy to deal with the serious problem of social isolation.

£2m to assist Glasgow’s fire recovery (SG 14/12/18)
Around £1.85 million of the Scottish Government’s Fire Recovery Fund is to be used by Glasgow City Council to provide business rates relief and support business recovery.

Statistical News Release – Life Expectancy (SG 12/12/18)
Statistics published today by the National Records of Scotland indicate that life expectancy for those born in 2015-2017 varies between Scotland’s council areas by up to 7.2 years for males and 5.0 years for females.

More affordable homes (SG 11/12/18)
Latest figures show a 21 percent rise in the number of affordable homes delivered in Scotland during the last year.

4% increase in number of new build homes completed (SG 11/12/18)
There were 18,182 new build homes completed across all sectors over the year ending June 2018, an increase of 4%, or 695 homes, on the previous year.

Scotland signs up to forestry pledge (SG 11/12/18)
A global ambition to restore landscapes and forests has been supported by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Building Scotland Fund (SG 10/12/18)
Industrial and commercial developments around the country will be given support, under the first release of funding from the £150 million Building Scotland Fund. The Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres (SPRUCE) has received £25 million to help fund a wide range of commercial and industrial projects.

Building and fire safety (SG 06/12/18)
Sound alerts for evacuation in high rise buildings and extending the mandatory installation of sprinklers in new flats, will be introduced in legislation next year.

News Releases

RIAS / RIBA Awards for Scotland 2019 (RIAS 12/18)
Open for Entries – The RIAS / RIBA Awards for Scotland 2019, celebrating the best in Scottish architecture! The deadline for entries is 21st February 2019. An early bird discount of 10% is available until 7th February 2019.

IHBC Marsh Award for Successful Learning in Heritage Skills 9IHBC 12/18)
IHBC Marsh Award for Successful Learning in Heritage Skills is designed to recognise the contribution of an individual for their significant learning in traditional building activities and craft skills, related to the appropriate care, maintenance or improvement of buildings and their context. Anyone can make a nomination by filling a short form online. Deadline 28 February 2019.

COSLA claims Scottish Budget will lead to cuts (COSLA 13/12/18)
COSLA has said the “Budget Reality” is that it will lead to a £237m cut to local authority funding, in contradiction to the Cabinet Secretary’s claims that it supports local government.

New ‘exceptional talent’ visa for architects (RIBA 11/12/18)
Today (11 December 2018) RIBA and the Home Office announced that from 10 January 2019, the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent and Exceptional Promise) visa will be available to applicants from architecture, with RIBA playing a role in assessing applications made under the scheme.

Report examines merits of land value tax in Scotland (SLC 07/12/18)
A new report looking at land value tax, published today, Monday 10th December, suggests that land value taxation could help deliver Scotland’s land reform objectives and raise revenue in a more progressive way.

Winners Announced: The 2018 ‘20th Anniversary’ SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration (SURF 07/12/18)
Representatives of the five category winning initiatives for 2018 were personally congratulated on their inspiring work by the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Communities, Aileen Campbell MSP.

Quitting UNESCO would be an act of cultural vandalism (Holyrood Magazine 05/12/18)
Hidden amid all the Brexit hysteria, movements within the UK Government to withdraw the UK from UNESCO should give cause for alarm.

Archaeology Scotland helps teachers to bring Scotland’s history to the classroom (CiFA 05/12/18)
Archaeology Scotland, along with the major Scottish heritage organisations including Historic Environment Scotland, Dig it! Surgeons’ Hall Museums, and National Museums Scotland, have put forward their best resources on Scotland’s past, which will now be accessible in one place – Heritage Resources Portal:

New planning bill duties could see Scottish system grind to a halt, planners warn (RTPI Scotland 05/12/18)
The latest draft of the Planning (Scotland) Bill will place up to 88 new duties and responsibilities on planners without the resources required to undertake them, according to figures published today from the Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland (RTPI Scotland).

AJ Architecture Awards 2018: Architect of the Year (AJ 04/12/18)
Congratulations to Collective Architecture. The Glasgow and Edinburgh-based architects really couldn’t be better named. Not only does the 42-strong firm itself operate as a collective – a limited company owned by an employee-owned trust – but the firm has steadily established a reputation for forging high-quality and socially conscious architecture from its close collaboration with clients in Scotland and beyond.

Land value capture to have a proactive role in place making (04/12/18)
Ways in which Scotland can successfully harness land value capture to create places where people want to live are being explored by the Scottish Land Commission.

Calls for meaningful action on land value capture (HCLG 29/11/18)
The Housing, Communities & Local Government Committee has called for “meaningful action” on implementing measures on land value capture.

Opinion & Comment

Battlefield Registration – what is it trying to protect? (Nick Bridgeland 14/12/18)

Where’s the Party? The ever changing face of our social spaces (Iain Anderson, HES, 11/12/18)

How we are influencing the Scottish Planning Bill (Craig McLaren, RTPI Scotland 04/12/18)

Parliamentary Questions & Answers

Questions marked with a triangle (?) are initiated by the Government in order to facilitate the provision of information to the Parliament.

Question S5W-20182: Andy Wightman, Lothian, Scottish Green Party, Date Lodged: 26/11/2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on extending the Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme beyond a one-year cycle to assist voluntary organisations in better planning and preparing the delivery of long-term housing-related projects and services.
Answered by Kevin Stewart (06/12/2018)

Question S5W-20186: Rachael Hamilton, Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, Date Lodged: 27/11/2018
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) purpose and (b) remit is of its Short Term Lets Delivery Group; which groups are represented on it; on what dates it has met; what future meetings are planned; which stakeholders it has engaged with, and by what date it will present its findings.
Answered by Kevin Stewart (06/12/2018)

Question S5W-20200: Graham Simpson, Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, Date Lodged: 27/11/2018
To ask the Scottish Government what the mandatory minimum Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) level is for new home completions.
Answered by Kevin Stewart (03/12/2018)

Events

For the latest information about BEFS Members’ events see our events calendar.

Planning for Low Carbon Heat
Date: Tuesday 12 March 2019
Venue: Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL
The way we heat our buildings is going to change dramatically in the coming years. The new Planning (Scotland) Bill, Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies and district heating regulations will have a significant impact on how planning approaches energy and place, with the potential to improve air quality, reduce carbon emissions and create new, local economic opportunities.
Zero Waste Scotland is hosting a free workshop to help planners understand more about the changing policy landscape and how these changes might be addressed in practice. The session is free for all planning professionals, whether in the public or private sector.

IHBC Annual School – Nottingham 2019 ‘Heritage, Risk & Resilience. Confronting conservation calamities’
Date & time: Full School: Thursday 4 – Saturday 6 July 2019
Day School: Friday 5 July 2019
Venue: Nottingham.
The IHBC will hold its 21st Annual School in Nottingham, from 4-6 July 2019, hosted by the IHBC East Midlands Branch.
The Annual School focuses on the theme of ‘Heritage, Risk & Resilience: confronting conservation calamities’ and explores:
•   Heritage challenges and insights into solutions for Fire | Flood | Structural Failure
•   Case studies – Technical, practical and strategic advice
•   Planning for the worst: dealing with the aftermath
The Annual School includes three exciting days of:
•   Tours – Nottingham, Leicester, Derby & the East Midlands
•   CPD support: Up to 20 hours Continuing Professional Development linked
•   Business opportunities: Sponsors, exhibitors, networks & supporters

Vacancies

Next Step Initiative is offering The Ethnic Minority Career Museum, & Built Environment Heritage Traineeships (With Bursary)
High Quality Grant-Supported Traineeship at Scottish Heritage Organisations
Available Positions:
Conservation & Culture Traineeship x 1 (Edinburgh)
Museums & Galleries Traineeship x 2 (Edinburgh)
Technical Conservation Skills Traineeship x 2 (Stirling)
Museum and Heritage Traineeship x 2 (Glasgow)
Applications are now open for 7 full time 12-month accredited work-based placements in heritage management starting March 2018. Training Bursary grant of £13,500 gross per annum.
Application deadline: Midday Friday 11th January 2019.

Heritage Officers x2 East Lothian Council
Two exciting opportunities to lead heritage projects with East Lothian Council.
Heritage Lottery Fund Great Place Scheme – Preston Seton Gosford Heritage Connections Project Officer (FT, fixed term 2 years, flexible working available)
Historic Environment Scotland – Cockenzie Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme Project Officer (FT fixed term 4 years, flexible working available) .
Applications open: 11th of January 2019
Closing date: 27th of January 2019

Board Members – Architecture and Design Scotland
How would you like to help shape Scotland’s built environment?
Architecture and Design Scotland: Appointment of 4 Board Members. Scottish Ministers are looking to appoint 4 new members to the Board of Architecture and Design Scotland (A&DS). We are interested to hear from Architects and other related professions as well as those with significant experience of communications, media or marketing as we look to build a new team to drive A&DS forward.
The closing date for applications is 25 January 2019

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19 Dec 2018

Andrew Ormston, Director and Lead Consultant at Drew Wylie Projects, discusses the cultural value of land in relation to recent events on landscape and communities.

Photo taken at the Argentinian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2018 -the work of Javier Mendiondo, Pablo Anzilutti, Francisco Garrido and Federico Cairol

An interesting week for discussions in Edinburgh that link to the cultural value of land. This prompted me to ask a group of human geographers for advice on a seminal text. Cue gentle laughter and a reminder that there are scores to choose from. And of course, there are. Cultural value and land (or property, regeneration etc.) has been everywhere for a long time, particularly in relation to environmental debates. So why does it not pop up more often in policy debate and strategic discussion?

An interesting debate on the recent ‘Community Empowerment and Landscape’ report (organised by BEFS) had presentations by many of the key players. It was clear that community involvement/empowerment as a driver for policy development in Scotland has been embraced across a wide spectrum of interests. There are also a growing number of success stories emerging from policies in community empowerment and community asset transfers. The ‘social’ is taking its place alongside the ‘economic’. Furthermore, as Dr Kirsteen Shields of Edinburgh University argued, this is framed by a concern for human rights as embedded in the European Convention of Human Rights (CRAE), and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

However, while culture also forms part of this framing it doesn’t make its way through to policy. Despite some great practice, such as the Midsteeple Quarter in Dumfries or Moniave festival village down the road, you will mostly find cultural value and the land described in terms of cultural tourism in Scotland. A vibrant cultural community is easily translated as a visitor destination. Similarly, Scotland’s spectacular heritage sites and buildings can dominate what is considered to be culturally valuable in the places where they are situated.

It is also relatively easy to articulate cultural value around its instrumental use in tackling some of the challenges of empowering communities and land. Sally Reynolds of the Carloway Estate Trust contrasted her childhood, growing up in a village in Lewis with 100 other kids to the situation now, the same community but one child. Depopulation haunts Scotland and it isn’t just the economy that will struggle with the Brexit end of free movement. Sally was optimistic for the future seeing community ownership as stimulating a rural renaissance, but we also know that culture is a fundamental element of what attracts people to live in an area.

Community empowerment doesn’t equal democracy and it can reinforce the hierarchies of communities of interest that make up a community of place. It can be tough for a minority voice to speak in a smaller community. Culture can give voice to those marginalised in communities, whether by age, status, sexuality, ethnicity or geography in a way that more decision orientated mechanisms can’t.

The discussion in Edinburgh queried the ‘stickability’ of valuable pilot projects and I, for one, lament the absence of culture in projects that are exploring a more holistic approach to place based planning. The land use strategy pilots in the Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire being one example. The importance of the way people feel about a place or the land came up, and some took this into the spiritual or theological domain. There is an interesting body of work and practice that considers this, particularly in relation to environmental concerns. However, at a more practical level, involving cultural professionals directly in the processes of planning and regeneration connects people and re-imagines places and does not require metaphysical explanation. I still have positive memories of a project that situated a culture team in the planning department of a town and seconded a planner in the culture department. The results were impressive, even if it was in an era of overheated growth.

But it is the actual cultural value of land or place that needs to be considered here. Should we not be thinking about what the cultural entitlement is for residents of a particular place? Should it include something like the culture houses of Soviet era Poland, the maker spaces of Scandinavia, reinvented libraries, night time transport, or broadband speeds that work for everyone? Culture is not like the air we breath, it doesn’t just happen. It needs facilities, access, skilled people, and some money. Yes, lots of people in lots of places do creative work, but when it comes to developing that work people in rural areas and poorer areas are not as well served.

The point was made that there is much to learn from international examples of good practice. Work from Switzerland, Bolivia, Chile and Wales was quoted and I made a mental note to brush up on good international cultural practice in relation to place and the land. The issue of cultural strategy in countries where cities are home to most of the assets and austerity has diminished rural access has come up during my work in various countries, from Poland to Jordan.

I thought the discussion at the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Towns and Town Centres a couple of days later made the point again. Here we had a real sense of purpose, in some cases campaigning zeal from institutions you would expect to be more bureaucratic in approach, from Scottish Natural Heritage to Scottish Land Commission. The work under discussion was mostly funded with ‘new; money (even though some of this was EU funding, which, of course, may become extinct). The overall impression of the various presentations was a determination to progress by making the most of opportunities that policy developments have created. There are questions about the coherence and coalescing of this developmental drive, but there is no doubt it is changing the ‘environmental environment’. In contrast the drive and energy of progressive cultural organisations is not always matched by external policy ambition. Cultural debate in Scotland can become locked in unhelpful polemics: elite arts versus popular culture; middle class versus working class; tangible heritage versus intangible heritage; the existing cultural estate versus new and emerging practice. A growing interest in data and metrics hasn’t always helped this. Rather than a SMART culture, an understanding of what we mean by the cultural value of land and place is needed. Cultural empowerment is as important as the economic and social aspects of community empowerment. We need to have an approach that is understood by, and meaningful across the full spectrum of Scotland’s progressive policy developers.

Originally published by Andrew Ormston on LinkedIn on 5th December 2018, here.

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19 Dec 2018

Ewan Allinson reflects on asymmetries of power and tensions between conservation and community interests, following BEFS Community Empowerment and Landscape event.

Spring thunder over Watgarth, Forest-in-Teesdale, Co. Durham. April 2018 © Ewan Allinson

The Community Land Scotland roadshow has been touring the UK, making vivid thereby the empowerment differential that Scottish devolution has brought into being. The report Community Empowerment and Landscape – published jointly by Community Land Scotland and Inherit – is the basis of the roadshow and essential reading for all who seek to address asymmetries of power in the British countryside. When the roadshow rocked up in Manchester, Alastair McIntosh tweeted from the Isle of Lewis “it would be great if you could share during the day what English folks make of our land reform, and whether they see any strategy unfolding to advance their own. (I often find they admire ours, but despair at the prospects for theirs.)”

Not long before, when the roadshow passed through Edinburgh, I had been the spellbound Sassenach in the room, accepting how deep is the chasm that separates the prospects of the crofter from that of England’s tenant hill farmers.

I was there on behalf of the HLF/Arts Council funded Northern Heartlands Great Place Scheme in west Co. Durham which includes as feudal a corner of England as you’ll find. To the north of the river in Teesdale, most farms belong to Lord Barnard’s Raby Estates, all distinguished by their white lime-washed houses and barns. To the south of the river, where much of the land had, until recently, belonged to the Earl of Strathmore, the properties have handsome buff sandstone exteriors. As feudalisms go, the estates have been relatively benign, enabling young families without capital to make a go of hill farming. Communities here are resilient but confidence is wavering.

Dr Sally Reynolds, one of the panellists at the Edinburgh event, spoke about the boost to local confidence occasioned by the Carloway Estate Trust land buy-out on the Isle of Lewis. Dr Reynolds, who is the trust’s development officer and who grew up on the island, described how the buy-out reversed a path of rapid community decline. This is a story needing heard by all who presume to rule on the ‘viability’ of remote communities.

Dr. Chris Dalglish, the author of Community Empowerment and Landscape, identified some of the faultlines that stand in the way of local empowerment more generally. Not least among these is the the tension between conservation interests and community interests. This tension is as endemic as it is unnecessary and is the subject of my own work with Teesdale farmers, applying philosophy to bring their unheeded expertise and knowledge to the fore. Dr. Dalglish remarked that while this Participation Deficit is being dealt with in pilot cases here and there, such efforts need now to be normalised. Given that real injustices flow from this deficit, it was great to hear from Dr Kirsteen Shields, a lecturer in international law and food security at Edinburgh University. Dr Shields spoke on the scope for the law to address these asymmetries of power. At the moment, locals do have a right – which is enshrined in policy – to participate in decision-making, but this is poorly implemented in practice. The implementation of rights is not fixed so by teasing out the tensions between environmental, social and cultural rights, the law can help embed the right to participation. She counselled that it will require the efforts of ‘non-experts’ to push this forward.

At the close of the event, I pitched in to suggest that one human right that crofters and hill farmers might appreciate is not to have their spiritual and sometimes theological covenant with the land cheapened by the ‘services’ terminology of neo-liberal landscape policy. I was very heartened by the panel’s responses.

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13 Dec 2018

With around 11,600 hectares of vacant and derelict land in Scotland (an area almost twice the size of the City of Dundee) and more than 37,000 long-term empty homes in the country, vacant and derelict sites can present real challenges for communities across Scotland. Scottish Government figures estimate that a third of us live within 500 metres of a derelict site, this figure reaches 61% in Glasgow. Often smaller areas of vacant and derelict land or buildings can have a detrimental impact on a community, acting as magnets for crime and anti-social behaviour. Regeneration of such sites could be game-changing for the local economy and communities, especially where housing, urban green space or cultural facilities needs are great.

The Scottish Land Commission is working to create a Scotland where everybody benefits from the ownership, management and use of the nation’s land and buildings. As part of our work on land for housing and development we are focusing on ways to transform vacant and derelict land and bring it into a more productive and equitable use, delivering economic and social benefits.

The Scottish Land Commission has been taking some important steps in this area. We’ve launched the Vacant and Derelict Land Task Force in partnership with Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). The Task Force is looking at innovative ways to transform and bring thousands of acres of long term vacant and derelict land back into productive use.

We also produced a proposal for a potential new power to help tackle the blight of vacant and derelict sites in Scotland- the Compulsory Sales Order (CSO). Working with a wide range of experts and organisations with extensive experience ranging from regeneration, housing, valuation and human rights, enabled us to create a detailed framework for how a CSO could work. The Scottish Land Commission submitted this proposal to the Scottish Government in August. It is intended to be a framework to inform any future work undertaken by Scottish Government on bringing forward CSO legislation.

Why a CSO? In the current regeneration toolbox, Scotland has mechanisms that allow planning authorities and communities to buy vacant and neglected sites. However, what happens when neither have a specific end use in mind for problematic sites? What if the authority or a community body does not have the capacity or resources to take on the site themselves? Seeing such sites being put into some kind of productive use that will benefit the local community is often desirable but the current tools available might not always be appropriate.

A CSO power would offer an additional route for planning authorities to deal with such eyesore sites. By enabling a transfer of ownership, these sites could be transformed. This is backed up by research evidence which suggests that a change in ownership that transfers a property from a passive to an active owner is often a necessary pre-condition for bringing vacant and derelict sites back into productive use.

A CSO would give a planning authority (on a case-by-case basis) the chance to:

firstly, investigate a site. This would be very important step because it provides an opportunity to bring about a mutually acceptable resolution between the authority and the owner. This step must be taken before a formal order could be issued, demanding the sale of the property via an auction. A CSO is not intended to be a punitive instrument it can help facilitate a constructive dialogue with owners of problematic sites, arguably one of its strengths.
provide a more reliable measure for valuing vacant and derelict urban sites. An auction is an efficient way for revealing the true market price of a site at any given point in time, especially when they are difficult to value or estimate as there may be no accurate comparisons.
commit a new owner to bringing the property into a productive use. Conditions attached to the sale would mean that new owners are required to complete the development and bring the site into a productive use within a fixed period of time.

We need to ensure that our built environment is making the most for people living there and for Scotland by delivering well planned, sustainable communities as part of the place-making agenda. A CSO has the potential to be a powerful additional instrument for urban renewal and to improve the quality of places, making more of Scotland’s land. Read the full proposal here.

Katherine Pollard

Policy Officer
Scottish Land Commission

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12 Dec 2018

Rachel Tennant, Chair Landscape Institute Scotland, calls for a united approach to landscape, place and change to ensure Scotland’s landscapes are embedded in communities.

I attended with interest this discussion chaired by BEFS in Partnership with Community Land Scotland and Inherit following on from the publication of the research report ‘Community Empowerment and Landscape’ in September this year. The report examines the relationship between communities of place and landscape designations.

The debate was wide ranging in attempting to distil the positive steps that can be taken towards empowering community participation, as a human right, in decisions that affect the landscape and places that they live in.

I was heartened by the summing up of the report’s recommendations: –

Sustainable, rights based and accountable;
Empowered people with legitimate voices; and
A modern multi-objective approach to conservation practice.

Whilst the report focuses on the rural environment, as landscape designations mainly cover these areas, community participation is also vital in urban areas. The European Landscape Convention (ELC) to which Scotland is a signatory through the UK, upholds that all landscapes matter as they impact on and shape people’s lives.

In the last year we have seen a number of reports and strategies published all seeking change and betterment in Scotland’s relationship with our landscapes. ‘A New Blueprint for Scotland’s Rural Economy’ by National Council of Rural Advisers; ‘Landscape for Scotland’ from the Landscape Institute Scotland and ‘Scotland’s Geo-Diversity Charter’ by the Scottish Geodiversity Forum. In addition, the Scottish Government has released draft strategies on Forestry, the Environment, the new Place Principle has been launched and Historic Environment Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage have prepared Corporate Strategies – all of which effect communities and landscapes. This is with a backdrop of the Planning Bill, land reform and a proposed new Human Rights Act in Scotland.

Forgive the pun but it’s a busy landscape out there.

Scotland’s international commitments clearly set out the relationship between landscape, people and place. The ELC recognises landscapes in law as an essential component of people’s surroundings, an expression of diversity of their shared cultural and natural heritage and a foundation of their identity. In addition it seeks to ensure greater participation of the public, authorities and other parties in decisions that affect landscape and to further integrate landscape into all its policies.

Landscape and natural capital are clearly embedded in the United Nations seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, to which Scotland is also a signatory. The Scottish Government use these Goals as a principal in its own National Performance Framework.

These commitments exist in law and are profound. The ‘Scotland is Now’ campaign, by the Government, shamelessly uses the landscape as a backdrop to set our country on the world scene. So, what do we need to do to influence those in power to recognise and help them implement these commitments?

The findings of recent UN research identifies a lethal range of challenges that face our society in the coming years. Aging, low fertility, migration, climate change, automation and Artificial Intelligence are six trends that will fundamentally affect all countries in the developed north. In addition to this are scarcity of resources, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, and pollution of air, soil and water.

Ian McHarg, author of ‘Design with Nature’ believed that:-

“we can intelligently and creatively meet human needs within the limits of the environment and thereby contribute to overall diversity and dynamic stability, which is synonymous with human and planetary health”

There were no outcomes from this interesting debate and that is a mistake. It is a noisy world and voices need to be heard at the right level to meaningfully make the balanced decisions and changes needed. There is no time to worry about the particular emphasis of individual organisations in this arena – we need to work together to ensure a collective voice. Scotland’s landscapes and people depend on this.

Landscape Institute Scotland in association with other organisations with an interest in landscape, community and place, wish to form the Scottish Landscape Alliance. We believe in a united approach to landscape, place and change through good design, stewardship and promotion to balance community, economic, cultural and biodiversity needs. We welcome further discussion to ensure that all Scotland’s landscapes are embedded in our communities to safeguard their continuing value and benefit to the health, wellbeing and prosperity of our nation for future generations.

Rachel Tennant FLI Hon FRIAS
Chair Landscape Institute Scotland

scotland.landscapeinstitute.org
mail.scotland@landscapeinstitute.org

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29 Nov 2018

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