FIFE COUNCIL’S external auditors have told the local authority it needs to improve the way it looks after the Common Good funds.

Scott Moncrieff state that it is not clear where specific responsibilities for administering the funds lie, there is poor information about moveable Common Good assets such as paintings and books, and there is a risk the funds do not receive rental income which is rightfully theirs.

“There appears to be significant variances in the level of rental income received from both council services and external organisations and inconsistencies as to whether the Common Good asset is on the Common Good asset register or the council asset register.

“We understand that many of the rental agreements have been inherited and not reviewed since local government reorganisation,” they say in a report to the council’s standards and audit committee.

The auditors have drawn up an action plan.

Neil Crooks, chairman of the standards and audit committee, said, “This is a very thorough piece of work that has been done by Scott Moncrieff. It has given us a very clear picture on the way forward for the council in its management of Common Good assets.

“I’m pleased to say that a number of the recommendations in the report are already in hand. The review of the council’s scheme of administration will clarify where responsibilities for Common Good lie and also widen them out.

“Our committee consider the area committees to be a key component in the process and there are obvious gaps in the Common Good register which will be addressed. Councillors will also be offered training on the definition of Common Good and stewardship of those funds.

“The council has already made great progress over the last few years by taking a proactive approach to creating a Common Good asset register and the development of a Fife Council policy on the security of moveable assets will now include Common Good artefacts.

“I think once the external auditor’s action plan is implemented, there will be a more robust management of these historical Common Good assets and it will ensure they are given a status equal to those of council assets.

“Local communities are very interested in these funds and would be concerned if they read the report.

“Members felt that a higher priority should be given to Common Good issues and hopefully this report will encourage buy-in from services who have perhaps not seen this as a priority before.

“We accept that it is a very complex issue, but there is a determination to iron out anomalies and record information in an open and transparent way.”

Michael Enston, the council’s executive director of performance and organisational support, said there was a risk to the council’s reputation if it failed to implement the proposed action plan, but warned that doing so would require further targeting of existing resources.

“Whilst the report recognises the ongoing work to regularise the council’s treatment of Common Good assets and the efforts made to produce a complete register, it identifies a number of areas for continuing improvement. These will be taken forward as resources allow. However, it is likely that further resources from various services will be required to be devoted to this area to complete the work timeously.”
Send the Editor your comments on this or any other story. Fife Courier

If politics means anything it is "How groups of people organise" without organisation we will not get very far. Organisation creates power to change things - so how we organise is very important.

 

How come at school we are taught to think about a career, jobs, business studies - Why not, how to form your own union? - School helps the pupil to organise in order to serve business - To protect ourselves from business we need to organise - for ourselves

 

This group is interested in how people communities and groups organise. As our communities get more atomised we can no longer rely on the big community involvement of of yesteryear. We need to continuously find new ways of creating solidarity from wider afield and by a variety of media - Community journalism, radio, newsletters, mapping and community workshops could hold some of the answers - you may have some ideas yourself; want to help build, or support initiatives already here - learn to create your own.

 

A few examples of the many projects that offer participation

 

The January Reshuffle 2009
A collection of groups and activities for everyone; films, workshops, discussion and making things

Document7 film Festival 2009
Festival on for a week with other events going on on the periphery that you can participate in.

Sunny Govan Radio
Make your own news or talk about something you are interested in - That's what Sunny G is there for.

Electron Club
Learn some technical skills - come to a workshop - drop in and see how you can connect up with other projects and communities.

Glasgow Social Centre
GSC is a new project finding its feet and is an open house for useful ideas

The Burgh Angel
The Angel is a local newspaper that is always happy for new helpers and content.

West Bank Lane
To be demolished for controversial "Super School"
http://sosglasgow.wordpress.com/
 
Otago Lane
"developers Otago Street Ltd have submitted an application for planning to build 163 new dwellings and 6 commercial properties of up to 8 storeys
high in the conservation area of Otago Lane."
To object write to Glasgow City Council Planning Dept. Ref.No. 09/01774/DC or planning.representations@drs.glasgow.gov.uk before the end of August 2009
 
Ruthven Lane
"Ruthven Property Partnership has been given permission to flatten rundown buildings between Ruthven Lane and Dowanside Lane in the west end. The cobbled lanes are home to boutiques, vintage clothes stores and independent shops. Among the traders affected are Circa Vintage - which pop star Duffy said was her favourite clothes shop - and record store Play it Again"
http://www.theherald.co.uk/search/display.var.2501035.0.ruthven_lane_plans_approved.php

The official unemployed figures released today show that 2.44 million people are now unemployed in Britain. This is the highest number in over 15 years. The Wirral H & S Centre has decided to set up an Unemployed Workers Movement in Merseyside, with the launch meeting being held on Thursday 27th August at 2pm at the Wirral health and Safety Welfare Centre, 4 St Anne St. Birkenhead Wirral.

 

The meeting is open to all unemployed people and is a local attempt to create a voice & representation for unemployed people, and a campaign for free training and jobs at a proper rate of pay. The meeting organiser, Alec McFadden, company secretary of the Wirral Centre said “in Merseyside unemployment has increased by 54 percent in the past 12 months and is now standing at 57,340 or 6.15 percent. So is 2 percent above the national average  which is 4.1 percent. The level of benefit, Jobseekers Allowance is only £64.30 per week which is clearly not enough to live on. The effects of the recession are now starting to have a detrimental effect on people, families and communities.

 

• Over 1 million young people 16-25 unemployed.
• Increase in Homelessness & House Repossession.
• Increase in Alcoholism & Addiction
• Increase in Family Stress & Breakdown
• Increase in Domestic Violence
• Increase in Crime.
• (according to The Audit Commission 12/08/09)

 

 

This situation will only get worse unless more focused Government action is taken with saving manufacturing jobs a priority. Too many employers are going into liquidation, closing down & sacking all their workers The Government could nationalise these workplaces, (like they nationalised the banks) save jobs and tackle youth unemployment by increasing youth training and apprenticeship schemes. The Financial Services Authority (F.S.A) has funded a special money guidance project which the Wirral Centre is part of, providing free guidance on:

 

● Mortgages
● Borrowing
● Credit
● Savings
● Investment
●Insurance
● Pensions
● Budgeting
But much more could be done by involving Local Authorities in this type of work.

 

Alec concluded “Who would have believed that the 21st Century would see the return of Unemployed Workers Organisations, which were so active and necessary in the 1930’s when Unemployment reached record levels. Nobody in modern Britain either speaks or represents The unemployed or their families, so the centre will create the first Unemployed Workers Union of the 21st Century on Thursday 27th August 2009.

For Further Information
Please Contact
Alec McFadden on
0151 666 1999 or 07831 627531

Workshop Topic:

Learning young

 "Politics is trivia. Anyone can understand it. You may have to do a bit of study and research here and there but on the whole politics is straight forward. There are of course people who would like you to think otherwise. These are experts, those qualified (by the government) to speak on our behalf."

Noam Chomsky

 

What do young people get from us at the end stage of formal education - towards education of free choice?

 

A mother asked me how her 16 year old daughter, gets engaged with politics. What she was meaning was not, how to join a political party, but rather how she (daughter) learns to understands politics and political ideas. Politics here should be understood as "How groups of folk organise themselves"

 

One of the problems of doing this could be. How do we put back or maintain a hunger for learning that school may have killed - not learning for a job but "learning for life". But not learning for life by a pre-packaged government module that you get a certificate at the end of. But learning to live a life of engagement and full participation. A life of politics.

 

There is the transition space between the child and the adult. The no-mans land of youth. At a time in a young persons life when their energy could be used in hard work and the chance to sweat and earn some independence and cash - they are still tethered to education systems - testing for conformity, careers, and learning probably - that politics is boring.

 

Politics has also become a a word of vilification rather than an participatory organising tool, and for good reason - because, politics needs to rest in the hands of the experts and the powerful. For what politics means, does not necessarily fit the actions carried out by those calling themselves "Politicians" - as we all know.

 

The more you think about explaining the meaning of politics to a young person the more you realise how little you know yourself - Because politics is also about learning, and there is always something new to learn - Politics is ageless and a process you are never to young to be involved in.

 

Politics in any real sense can only be understood through an engaged life. What makes politics boring to young people apart from government propaganda - is our failure to engage them in political life. And we will only do that through real things that can be measured politically, are intuitive, carry responsibility and have a a relationship to the young persons future.

 

Governments can not educate young people about what politics is. (perish the thought if they did) Politics is learned through integration, participation, experience, family, friends and belonging to something. No government window dressing can substitute this process. So the question is how do we as parents, and mature adults, present formats that will help young people to understand what politics means...

 

Discuss

Connected to:
If we are out in the boat we might as well fish.
Community Journalism.
Photojournalism.
Video work

Community Organising Workshops and the Bridge Network Project 2009 -2010

What are we trying to do?
Who is it for?
Where will it happen?
When will it happen?
Why?
How?
Questions we are asking
Strenghening the social base
Creating solidarity
We need to ask
Collecting Information (Interviews)
Working through failure
Living the life
Social Change
Participation

Phases 1.2.3.
Bridge

 

 

What are we trying to do
Community Organising Workshops - Helping to building more power for people. The idea is to create formats for workshops of self help and solidarity that will sustain a communication network, some publications, events and ideas that will help strengthen community information and organising structures. In other words help commuity groups and people to organise - for what ever purpose

 

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Who is it for?
The project, workshops and interviews will be for people right across the spectrum of social change and community involvement. With an emphasis on encouraging new members of the community to join in.

 

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Where will it happen?
The idea is to help create place based projects where people want them and support those already in the community. And to build a communication network that can collaborate through events and issues of mutual importance.

 

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When will it happen?
The project is in the here and now. Progress will be made at the pace of participation. There are no paid workers - we work at the speed of goodwill and self determination.

 

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Why?
There is so much that is possible and happening in our communities that could lift the anxiety, frustration and fear, and the feeling of isolation -particularly in run down areas. People need to be aware of what is happening first. Once folk experience the idea they can change things, or can be part of change they are very reluctant to give it up and they will soon start to find other ways and other things to change.

 

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How?
By creating small achievable aims - by trying things, if they don’t work try other things. By awareness of other value systems that used to sustain our communities before pure monetary ones. Looking at he Common Good; cooperatives, useful un-employment, networking and using what is at our disposal.

 

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Questions we are asking
How do we help build power for people?
How do people build power for themselves?
How do we encourage people to make their own decisions and run their own lives?
How can we encourage people to rely less on the coordinators who seek power for
themselves through the energies of the struggles of ordinary people?
How do we demand not to be consulted, but become “involved” in the decisions?
How do we change being defensive (voting) to being offensive (taking part)?
How do we create and work towards a long term vision of our society.

 

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Strengthening the social base
Our society has become very fragmented. The breaking up of peoples local social life has made us to dependent on business, the service industry, consumption - encouraging the idea that we should all stay in our wee living units and watch television and stay out of the way.
Before we can fight the might that is shaping our world - we need a solid social base that we can work from. Part of that base is discovering what a strong community can do for us.

 

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Creating Solidarity - Creating mass movements
There are many issues in our communities that have been created or exacerbated by a lack of solidarity around local people - issues which only solidarity will help to solve.
We can no longer rely on “local” mass movements of factory workers and such like, but need to rely on tools and ideas to create mass movements from wider afield - networks, tactics, communicating, responsibility of association.

 

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We need to ask
What is your experience, how did you get involved?
What is your general feelings about things, what floats to the top when you think about what is going on - what is needed?
What about the strength of solidarity and awareness in other things that are happening.
What do we need to do collectively to improve our efforts - to achieve more?
What works, where are the examples?
What about the use of technology, events, the media - making these things more accessible?
How do we best connect up and work with others in what we are trying to achieve.

 

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Collecting Information (Interviews)
A series of interviews/video - one to one - group - or open discussions on Creating power for ordinary people - over a 3 month period. The interviews will concentrate on ideas for building power and solidarity rather than constantly reiterating the problems endlessly. The interviewee’s will be from a broad spectrum of the community with an emphasis on folk who have found themselves inadvertently at the sharp end of community activism. (Thebeginner rather than the wissen activist). Also to discover the groups and people working in the various fields of people empowerment and how we can work together, cross reference expand and create events to highlight the knowledge.

 

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Working through failure
An important topic on the agenda should be failure. Never a truer saying If you don’t learn from history you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over again - Failure then should really be our starting point. Reinventing the wheel is also a precursor to failure. If we can create a vision through understanding to some extent each others needs, experiences and objectives and how we prioritise and organise our actions we can reduce failure. A longer term vision puts failure as part of the learning process, rather than an end to our efforts.

 

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Living the life
We can not nor should expect busy hard working people - Folk under stress by family, social problems, unemployment, and persecution - over worked groups, individuals and community campaigners to to spend valuable time on each new initiative that comes along. New projects especially ones that run on goodwill need to prove their worth by dedication and hard work - But hard work in the knowledge that each of us are part of building something bigger. There is no reason the work can not be celebrated, socialised and enjoyed. The project will endeavour to inject humour, fun, food and light heartedness at every appropriate moment.

More and more of our community base has been displaced by the supplanting of local ideas of engagement with service industry type community centres - privatisation, gentrification and so on. How could the social base be supported? One way is by recognising the developing projects and institutions created by and in the local community To encourage the growth of community led projects, and by working through local peoples issues and experiences. These are the type of things that could help to strengthen the social base.

 

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Social change
Is the movement for change getting any bigger in this direction. There seems to be lots going on but the question is. Is it leading to bottom up social change? There are various parts of the movement doing great work and are over worked. There are success stories all over the place that could inspire. There are also a lot of folk suffering in the social backwaters who are not being reached - communities in need of a good example of solidarity and inspiration.
So the question we are asking here is “How do we help unleash the power of ordinary people - the un-waged and the poorest in our society to help make change happen?

 

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Participation
There are many answers and variations and activities that could be and are applied to the issues and problems that stand in the way of the struggle for this kind of power - which is precisely what this initiative is about. How do we (groups organisations activists, individuals and beginners) better organise and proceed towards using what we already have - what we are good at and how can the successes we have made be used to shape more new ideas that will encourage participation.
The first part of this project is to try and find out by asking these questions and recording the answers. The second will be figuring out some strategies in how to proceed then - building workshops.

 

 

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Phases: 1. 2. 3.
Phase 1. We will be gathering information on the current situation and what people think about it. We will do this through recorded interviews and discussions. We want to find out what is already happening in communities, who is doing what and will be investigating the best way of connecting and linking groups, people and ideas.

Phase 2. We will be seeking the best way of capturing people’s interest and will actually launch the project. We’ll be looking at ideas of how people facing different issues can work together, support each other and successfully win their battles.

Phase 3. Using the information gathered from the sources, issues and people, we will set up workshops on community organising and people can begin to build a new kind of solidarity between their communities and others.

What is presented here is the bare bones of a project - a starting point that can be altered, shaped and adapted to needs. A filing cabinet of links and ideas. The real work will be and is being done in the community - If we listen to people and shape our ideas on what we hear.

 

 

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Bridge
The Bridge network is a website dedicated to increasing community networking. The site will act as a filing cabinet for ideas and events, and will encourage collaborations, workshops and activities focused on community organising and social change from the ground up. We will encourage re-emphasising the ownership of public institutions and the common good and how these things can be used to empower citizens. Members can offer workshops in IT skills, email, internet and website design, using the Bridge and open source software to encourage practical and sensible use of technology in community organising. The Bridge receives no funding, has no association with any political party, is owned by no-one and will run on respect, goodwill and self determination.

 

 

The Bridge Network will be used to highlight, connect and cross reference some of these ideas. But the real work will be carried out on the ground, in the community. Not when everything is ready - right here right now - not tomorrow but to-day

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Hi folks,

via a school friend who is being squeezed by successive developments, first the Gibson St. block, now Otago Lane itself. If you know anyone in the Hillhead/Otago St.  area... could you forward the attached to them?

" The developers Otago Street Ltd have submitted an application for planning
to build 163 new dwellings and 6 commercial properties of up to 8 storeys
high in the conservation area of Otago Lane.  As a resident of the lane, I
am deeply concerned about what this will do to the character of the lane and
the surrounding area, as well as, of course, the genuine concern for the
restricted quality of life this will afford to myself and the rest of the
current residents and shopkeepers in Otago Lane.
I would be very grateful if you would consider reviewing the plans lodged
with the Development and Regeneration Services Department at 229 George
Street, Glasgow, G1 1QU and, if appropriate, lodging an objection to the
application for planning consent with the executive director at
planning.representations@drs.glasgow.gov.uk before Friday 14th August "
thanks, R

All the details: http://citystrolls.com/z-temp/z-pages/otago.html

Common Good Funds

A golden opportunity for your Community’s voice to be heard

Community Councils have a crucial role to play in repatriating some control over their Common Good Funds (CGFs).

As one of the many ‘National Conversations’ conducted by the Scottish Government and Cabinet throughout Scotland, one was held in Melrose on 28th July. The First Minister, Mr Alex Salmond, spoke on the importance of having Scottish input on policy and freedom of action in Scottish matters as far as the Nation was concerned. He also applied the same argument to local affairs at community level where local contact was, in part, the purpose of these admirable ‘conversations’.

    He was asked the question  “…are there any plans in the pipeline to restore to Burghs some of their former powers in local affairs, in particular in respect of Common Good Funds…”

    It was passed to John Swinney, as the Minister responsible, to reply.
    What John Swinney confirmed was that there were pilot schemes in operation to assess possible future roles for Community Councils but that nothing was specifically proposed about Common Good Funds. But, he said, if Community Councils wished to have more say in their Common Good Funds, then they should write to him and say so.

    Under the present fact-finding pilot scheme there will be no feedback to the Government from Community Councils with CGFs in their constituencies. Three petitions (PEs 875, 896 & 961) were debated by the Local Government and Transport Committee of the Scottish Government in 2006/7. The petitions were accepted and resulted in guidance being issued to Local Authorities (LAs) on three things: separation of CGFs from other LA accounts, getting the asset registers up-to-date by March 2009 and lastly guidance on accounting procedures. The Committee also believed “that common good assets and the common good fund should be promoted better to allow communities to have more influence over their use.”  Regrettably, the response by LAs to these Government guidelines has been patchy.

   

So this is the Golden Opportunity. If your community has a CGF and feels that it has been distanced from its CGF by the present legislation, has lost some CG assets and wants much greater say in its management, write to John Swinney at Holyrood and tell him. The previous Government has already agreed it in principle.
   

There are eight Community Councils with known CGFs in the Borders and all are more or less dissatisfied with the way their CGFs have been handled since the 1973 Local Government (Scotland) Act arbitrarily divorced them from their own property. Some communities have even forgotten they own CGFs, most have lost sight of what their CGFs comprise and Local Authorities are both confused and remiss in defining the extent of CGFs. The situation, I suspect, will be much the same in the other 188 ‘former’ Burghs in Scotland elsewhere than in the Borders.

    As Community Councils, we are the statutory representatives of our communities; we would be failing them if we did not try to safeguard the inheritance passed down to us by our predecessors who, at times, had to lay down their lives while protecting the Community’s lands and possessions. At present we have no powers in administering the CGFs of which we are the beneficial owners.

    We must therefore act before CGFs are dissipated, disposed of, forgotten about or subsumed by present Local Authorities.

At the very least, CCs should request full voting membership of all CGF management groups, ideally with powers of veto.
If we do not act now, another chance may never arise.

   
Remember, the CGFs are the Community’s possessions inherited over centuries. Local Authorities have simply been given the legal title and the task of administering them but we are still the owners.
It is only simple justice that owners should have a say in the management of their own possessions.

Dr Lindsay D Neil
Convener, Selkirk Regeneration Group
Vice Chairman, Royal Burgh of Selkirk and District Community Council
 HYPERLINK "mailto:drlneil@btinternet.com" drlneil@btinternet.com

10/8/09
W: 644

 Common Good Ownership

Who owns the Common Good?

Common Good Funds (CGF), which are peculiar to Scotland only, are reminders of the days when Burghs were the centerpiece of Scotland’s local administration. The monarch, in times past, used the mechanism of granting land and privileges to settlements, thereby creating Royal Burghs, in return for dues to the Royal Treasury. Landowners/nobles also created slightly different ‘Burghs of Barony’ with similar grants for a roughly similar purpose. These grants became the ‘Common Good’ of the Burgh. Trusts of various kinds exist for towns, villages etc, but are outwith the Common Good and the CG law does not apply to them.

CGFs  typically now consist of buildings, playing fields, parks, fishing rights etc. and other ‘fixed’ property in the ‘former’ Scottish Burghs and a quantity of ‘moveable assets’ such as ceremonial chains of office and pictures etc acquired out of Burgh funds or as gifts to the Burghs over the years. CGFs were used and controlled by councils for the benefit of the citizens of the burghs and only for them. Particularly since the  Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the identity of what actually comprises the Common Good of a ‘former’ Burgh has become progressively more difficult to determine owing to the passage of time, disposals of CG assets, the inheritance by Local Authorities (LAs) of inaccurate lists from the Burgh Councils and poor record keeping since 1973 by LAs. CGFs have legislation protecting them but it is not perfect.

The wording of the still extant Common Good Act 1491 under King James IV enacted that the Common Good is ‘kepit to the commoune gude of the toun and to be spendit in commoune And necessare thingis of the burght be the avise of the consale of the toune for the tyme…’

    This makes a clear distinction between town inhabitants as beneficiaries and the relevant Burgh Councils tasked by the 1491 Act to administer the common good.
While in subsequent centuries, there was no dispute that legal title to the CG was deemed held by the Burgh Councils, this did not alter the fact that the beneficial ownership remained with the townspeople and does to this day.

    Nowadays, the ownership of the Common Good has given rise to much confusion in the minds of many, not least in the thinking of some members of the legal profession itself. An example of this is a recently published book on Common Good Law which states baldly on page one, that the Common Good is ‘owned outright’ by the LA.  This misguided opening statement is wrong and, at the very least, should be challenged and not relied upon. The word ‘outright’ is incorrect and the author should write and publish a correction of this assertion. His misunderstanding and that of others who now quote him, arises from a failure to appreciate the difference between the ‘vesting’ of a title giving legal ownership and the actual beneficial ownership. An analogy, although not exact, is that of offshore nominee trusts where the nominees are the legal owners, but the beneficiaries are UK residents.

    The ‘transfer of ownership’ of CGFs that occurred at the enactment of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 – actually on May 16th 1975 - involved the transfer of legal title only to the new District Councils and the beneficial ownership remained with the inhabitants of a ‘former’ Burgh. The LA was given powers under the act to administer the Common Good for the benefit of the Burgh and its inhabitants, and the Act gave powers to all elected local councillors to act as what constituted ‘trustees’ of all Common Good Funds within what eventually became a unitary authority area under a similar local government act of 1995. This ‘trusteeship’ carries a fiduciary duty which takes precedence in law over their other duties as LA councillors but few councillors are aware of this fact.
    If the 1973 Act had had the intention of confiscating all CG assets and giving them to LAs, it would have said so; it didn’t, instead it went into detail as to how the assets should be administered by LAs without tampering with the question of ownership apart from transferring the titles by vesting.
   

    Because the administration of Common Good Funds (CGF) prior to 1973 varied from place to place, that part of the 1973 Act relating to CGFs was intended to remove irregularities and introduce a measure of commonality throughout Scotland in their management. This it largely achieved, but gave rise to several problems which remain. They are:

    1) The 1973 Act was drafted in such a way that allowed different interpretations of it by individual LAs. The act and subsequent revisions specify that CGFs must be administered ‘having regard to the interests of the inhabitants’. Because this passage is legally imprecise, it allows a range of options to a LA in its observance. LAs can choose to override the expressed opinion of communities through their CCs over what should happen to their CGFs, and CCs are powerless to do anything about it.unless they embark on expensive legal action they can’t afford.

    2) In general, the often incomplete and inaccurate registers of ‘fixed’ and ‘moveable’ assets inherited by LAs from Burgh Councils, have not been investigated, corrected or kept up-to-date.

    3) Some LAs have assumed ownership of CG assets. Many CGF assets are no longer administered by the LAs as CGF property but are administered by different LA departments in the mistaken belief that they are ‘council property outright’ and due to the passage of time their association with, and ownership by the CGF has been largely forgotten.

    4) Under the Act, a community has virtually no control over the administration of its own CGF which it did have during the aegis of former Burgh Councils.

    5) Elected councilors, who are the ‘trustees’ of all CGFs, may reside elsewhere than where the CGF exists, are often unfamiliar with the extent of it and are largely unfamiliar with Common Good law. Little attempt is made by LAs to correct this.

6) Some LAs have chosen to convert the CGFs in their stewardship into charitable trusts. The effect of this is to render CGFs less subject to scrutiny by the beneficial owners, the accounts less available for public scrutiny, and puts the assets of the CGF in jeopardy although there are complex implications to selling trust assets which are still the subject of legal debate.

    Community Councils will recognise that the administration of CGFs is complex; their administration is an irksome and disproportionately onerous burden for an LA and it comprises a relatively small amount in terms of their overall budget. Investigations to assign ownership correctly, is both time consuming and costly, and LAs claim a ‘lack of resources’ to do this. It is nevertheless the duty of an LA to carry out the obligations conferred on it by the various acts and be punctilious in doing so. It should therefore be our collective aim as community councils to co-operate with and assist the LAs in achieving this, getting the registers in order, identifying what belongs to the Common Good and what does not, before time and usage makes it too difficult. It is much too important an issue for Community Councils, as the elected body in closest touch with local affairs, to ignore.

It may involve lengthy research of old Burgh/town council records, Sasines etc and speaking to locals who remember what might have been part of the CG. It is time well spent, very often fascinating and a sacrifice of time and effort worth making for your community. It took us 13 years to restore to the CG the fishing rights in Selkirk which the Crown took in 1911. We are currently claiming restoration of a park from the LA, chasing unpaid rents and doing a forensic inspection of the CG accounts. Our research still goes on and we will be claiming back more. Google Andy Wightman’s excellent paper ‘Common Good – A Quick Guide’ for an overview and write to John Swinney MSP ands tell him if you want more involvement in your Common Good. Do it now!

Without doubt, the most reliable guardian of any property is the owner, not the title holder.
You own your Common Good. Remember that.

Dr Lindsay Neil
Vice Chairman,
The Royal Burgh of Selkirk and District Community Council
 HYPERLINK "mailto:drlneil@btinternet.com" drlneil@btinternet.com

On 12th June Glasgow Council finally gave in and abandoned the idea of of Go Ape in Pollok Park

Thanks to all our supporters - we knew we spoke for the majority and could prove it - they thought we would gradually go away - but were wrong

In their press statement the Council and Go Ape tried to save face  - that is to be expected - but they and we know that they simply could not overcome the legal and financial mess they go  into - and which we have been pointing out for 18 months

We  established that Pollok Park (and Knowehead Lodge ) are part of the Common Good and they would have had to go to court to remove them

 

This would have cost either Glasgow Council tax payers or Go Ape tens of thousands of pounds  - and legal precedents are such that it is likely they would have lost (and the case would have taken several years)

 

The NTS had not  given its required consent for the proposals as they stood.  The idea to use Knowehead Lodge as a way round this was thought up in desperation and got nowhere

It is clear that Glasgow  Councillors (and Go Ape) were misled by Land Services  from the beginning

Go Ape and Glasgow Council thought we would just go away- but we have shown that we understood the legal status of Pollok Park better than them - and won round many politicians at local and national level through our reasoned arguments and independent legal opinions .

In July 2009 the Council finnaly accepted whate we have said all along -  that Pollok Park is part of the Common Good land of the City

We will still press for a proper management plan for the Park to be developed -with full and meaningful public consultations

We will press for representatives of  Park users to be involved in strategic decisions - so that this fiasco does not happen again

We have established using independent and expert legal opinion that Pollok Park belongs to us - It is part of the common Good

It cannot be leased without a court order and any income belongs to the Common Good and not council services.

We say that it was a gift to us in perpetuity we should not have to pay for the use of any part of it.

Save Pollok Park Campaign