BEFS Awarded Funding to Coordinate Scottish Traditional Building Forum

BEFS is delighted to have been awarded funding to coordinate the Scottish Traditional Building Forum (STBF).

Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS) welcomes a grant from Historic Environment Scotland to fund the running and coordination of the Scottish Traditional Building Forum (STBF).

STBF is made up of a network of local traditional building forums with local representation who work together to highlight specific issues relating to traditional buildings and building practices. It is concerned with the lack of awareness of property owners regarding the condition of their building and the wide ranging guidance offered to property owners in undertaking these repairs.

BEFS aims to raise the profile of the forum and provide guidance and support for the STBF and regional forums on widening partnerships and accessing the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament. This will be achieved with the help of John McKinney, known in the sector for championing traditional building maintenance, who has been appointed the STBF’s Coordinator. Among other responsibilities, John will organise, promote and run national STBF events and support existing forums with advice.

“We are grateful to Historic Environment Scotland for funding this initiative. It creates an invaluable opportunity to support and strengthen the traditional building forums and promote the exceptional work that they are doing” said BEFS Director, Euan Leitch.

Colin Tennant, Head of Technical Education and Training at Historic Environment Scotland, added: “Scotland has around 450,000 traditionally constructed buildings, many of which are used today as private homes and office buildings. This forum and network offers a real opportunity for knowledge sharing as well as access to guidance and expertise at a local level throughout the country. BEFS will build upon and further develop the great work that is already being carried out across the industry, which will help shape the future of building conservation in Scotland.”

BEFS has been involved in a number of STBF’s events, including their traditional building skills event in Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square Garden earlier this summer, which attracted more than half a dozen MSPs and inspired Gordon MacDonald MSP to lodge a parliamentary motion urging greater awareness of traditional skills and materials and the return on investment that this generates. BEFS has also supported STBF’s mini-golf course at the Edinburgh Festivals, which uses traditional building skills and materials for the obstacles. STBF is using the event to promote traditional building skills and materials to a range of people who would not normally attend or visit the vast array of events already organised to promote the industry.

Read more about the work of the STBF in John McKinney’s blog for BEFS.