Friday 19 September 2008
I still have a
lot of info to publish here which I will do so when I have
time. Meanwhile, here's an interesting report
published by the
Improvement Service
( a body that helps Local
Government improve its service).
Monday 23 June
2008
It has been a
while since I have published any news and there's lots to
write about! However, this will have to wait a wee while. I
am just back from Ethiopia and am heading off on 30 June
for a long cycle ride across Europe. When I get back at the
end of August I will make up for these missing months.
Meanwhile, something folk need to know and do occurs over
the summer - the preparation of Local Authority Accounts.
There is a period during which the public have a Statutory
right under the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland)
Regulations, 1985 to inspect the accounts of their Council.
This is a great opportunity to hold your Council to account
for its management (or mismanagement) of your Common Good.
James Perman has written a useful Guide to what to
do. An example
of the Notice you should see in the local press
advertising this opportunity can be downloaded here (example from Dundee City Council,
2007). James would be keen to hear how you get on. His
email is james@perman.co.uk
Monday 26 November 2007
Forward Scotland
have submitted a reponse to the LASAAC
Consultation (see 14 September entry below) It makes
an interesting read and contains some results of
research that they have undertaken on the disposal of
Common Good Land.Wednesday 20 November
2007
Glasgow news - looks like plans to lease land
in the Botanics for a nightclub are to be dumped following
revelations that at least part of the site is Common Good
land. Why does a City like Glasgow not KNOW what
land is held in trust for the people as part of it's
Common Good Fund?
Sunday 18 November 2007
Edinburgh news - in response to a Question tabled by Councillor Steve
Burgess, the Leader of of the Council, Jenny Dawe,
reported on progress with the internal review/enquiry
which is still continuing.
Wednesday 17
October 2007
Selkirk Community
Council's reponse to the LASAAC consultation can be
downloaded here.
In my 11 May 2007 entry below I noted that Perth and
Kinross Council were to conduct a review of common good
funds. I wrote to them on 6 September to ask how this was
coming along. They replied that the Review has not been
completed. Indeed it has not yet been started. As they
said, "the
programming of this exercise is still under discussion,
together with how it will be
resourced."
Monday 8 October 2007
James Perman, the
co-author of our 2005 report on Common Good
Land, has
prepared a response to the LASAAC consulotation which he
is happy to share with others. Download a copy
here.
Wednesday 3 October 2007
I have
published my response to the LASAAC Consultation on
accounting standards for the Common
Good.
Friday 14 September 2007
The Local
Authorities in Scotland Accounts Advisory Committee
(LASAAC) has just published a consultation paper on
Guidance to improve the accounting arrangements for Common
Good Funds. Click below to download details. Please do
respond by 2 November 2007.
LASAAC Consultation Covering
Letter (96kb
pdf)
LASAAC Consultation document
(400kb pdf)
Initial impressions are that the proposed Guidance is so
narrowly focussed on financial accounting that it does not
address many of the wider "accounting" concerns that exist
across Scotland. It also (alarmingly) recommends that,
Where the
local authority manages several funds inherited from
several burghs, the funds can be aggregated, for financial
reporting purposes, into one single statement.(para
4.17)
Given that the vast majority of Common Good Funds are
administered by local authorities as part of several funds,
this particular proposal seems a retrograde step. I will
publish my own response here as soon as I can.
Meanwhile, in Inverclyde, Councillor Ken Ferguson has been
pressing for action on the Common Good as reported in
the Greenock Telegraph on 10 September 2007. I wrote to the
Telegraph as follows.
Dear Sir,
I welcome the initiative of Councillor Ken Ferguson over
the Common Good Funds held by Inverclyde Council. When I
enquired in 2005 about what assets were held in these
Funds, I was informed that they did not know and after 6
months the Council was still unable to tell me. This is a
breach of the Council's statutory duties imposed when they
inherited Common Good Funds in 1975 and 1996.
In the latest Annual Accounts of the Council, it is wrongly
stated that there is one Inverclyde Common Good Fund when
in fact there should be three - one for Gourock, Greenock
and Port Glasgow. It is also wrongly claimed that the Fund
is for the benefit of the people of Invercylde. Again this
is wrong - the three funds are for the benefit of the
inhabitants of the three former burghs. to whom the Funds
belong.
What has happened in Inverclyde has also happened in other
Councils and it is time that the good folk of Gourock,
Greenock and Port Glasgow got back sight of their historic
inheritance and secured the legal right to take back title
to it.
yours etc.
Andy Wightman
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Wednesday 29 August 2007
I am now back in
Ethiopia having been in Scotland for June and July. During
my time there I tried to catch up on what was happening on
the common good front. I gave a lecture in Edinburgh to
over 100 community activists on the fate of the Edinburgh
Common Good Fund. We await news of the review that is
underway (see Edinburgh page for further details).
The three petitions that were considered in the last
Parliamentary Session are, apparently, still being
monitored. Mr Verity, Clerk to the Petitions Committee is
on record as saying that all three common good petitions
are carried on to Session 3 to be monitored. The
petitioners, meanwhile have followed up their efforts by
launching a common good campaign -download details
here.
Meanwhile, Selkirk Community Council have received public
support for exploring the development of a wind farm on
their common. See report in Selkirk Advertiser 24
August.
Perth & Kinross Council resolved to review the Common
Good Funds they hold (see Friday 11 May news below). I've
written to the Council to ask what progress is being made.
Finally, I eventually got round to having a look at the
Small Towns Report published by Scottish Borders Council,
COSLA and South of Scotland Alliance in November 2006
(available to download here). As the blurb states,
This report
makes the case for focused support for Scotland’s
small towns.
It has been compiled by the Scottish Small Towns Task Group
which was set up following the South of Scotland Alliance
(SoSA) Conference on “Small Towns under Threat”
held in September 2004. The Task Group has been supported
by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and is
administered on behalf of the SoSA by Scottish Borders
Council with the involvement of Dumfries and Galloway
Council
Now, this is an interesting report and Ruaridh Nicoll wrote
an interesting piece in the Observer
last year on it. It is well
worth reading BUT, it makes not one single mention of
Common Good despite the fact that 196 of the 262 towns
they cover have (or should have) common good funds! We
clearly have some work to do yet if the potential of the
Common Good is to be properly
recognised.
Tuesday 15 May 2007
I get an
increasing number of emails from folk concerned about how
common good assets are being managed (or not in many
cases). This is encouraging and a sign that awareness and
interest is growing. It is probably time to create some
kind of structured campaign or network and these appear to
be emerging in Edinburgh and Glasgow (see Friday 11 May
news below). I'll leave it to others to take the initiative
here. My role is to undertake research and analysis.
One interesting issue that arises in this whole issue is
the question of whether Common Good Land should be sold.
Communities often have an instinctive desire to prevent
sales which is understandable but sometimes selling may be
in the best interests of the Common Good Fund. Take, for
example, the recent case of Common Good Land at Sandown,
Nairn (download the Highland Council Committee paper
here). This land was identified in the
Local Plan for development and Outline Planning Consent
had been obtained for housing. Planning decisions of
course are neutral with regard to who owns the land and
in this case it just happened to be the Nairn Common
Good Fund.
The Highland Council therefore decided to market the site
and have received offers in excess of £14 million. In the
Committee Paper mentoned above, the Council are being asked
to approve negotiations with Deveron Homes Ltd. with a view
to concluding a sale. Once this is achieved the Nairn
Common Good Fund will be over £14 million wealthier.
Now, of course, the underlying issue here is who takes such
decisions. Since Local Authorities hold legal title to the
assets of Common Good Funds, they are in a position to
decide on behalf of the community whether land is sold or
not. It would be interesting to know whether, in the
circumstances, the folk of Nairn agreed with the decision
to sell. If I was them I would sell since it enriches the
Common Good Fund. Since this is a capital receipt, however,
I would invest these millions in other property and so grow
the asset value of the Common Good Fund.
My point is simply that in the understandable desire to
oppose the sale of any Common Good Land some communities
are losing sight of what the Common Good Fund is for and
the need to manage it prudently in order to increase its
value.
In order to do this, however, communities should have the
legal right to take back possession of the title to their
Common Good assets. Only then can they make the sometimes
difficult decisions that are currently being made on their
behalf by Councils - sometimes wisely - sometimes not so
wisely.
Friday 11 May 2007
Well the election
is over. Liberal Democrats promised a Common good Act in
their manifesto, the SNP more powers for Community Councils
and the Labour Party put forward the idea of Town Centre
Trusts. This is all welcome and hopefully, the Parliament
will be more receptive to doing something about the state
of Scotland's common good assets.
The Local Council elections are important too as the front
line in the campaign. A wider range of councillors has now
been elected including 3 Greens in Edinburgh.
The Scottish Parliament Committee looking at Common good
petitions (see previous stories below) has concluded its
business for Session 2 of Parliament but has stated that
the petitions are carried onto Session 3 to be monitored.
See the Petition Page for details. Missing is the final paper
(but get it here)
and Official Record (link here)of the meeting held by the Committee
on 27 March 2007. The enquiry was useful but in my view
does not address the issue properly. It was notable, for
example, that Fergus Ewing MSP commented in the final
meeting on 27 March as follows
"It has occurred to me—this may not be the first time
that the point has been made—that anyone in Scotland
or elsewhere could, under the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002, ask each local authority for a list of
its common good assets. That would be a fairly simple way
of forcing the issue. Perhaps that approach has already
been tried by people who are listening to this
discussion—I see heads nodding."
This is deeply frustrating. Our Review and Critique of Common Good Land
in Scotland did precisely this and a copy was given
to every single MSP in November 2005!
More news.......
The Scottish Law Commission published its Report on the
Conversion of Long Leases on 21 December 2006. Copies can
be downloaded at the SLC website. The Royal Institute of Chartered
Surveyors has published an intreresting commentary in
their Ownership proposed for ultra long
leaseholders.
The problem with the proposals is that any lease granted
for a term of over 175 years and with at least 100 years
to run qualifies to be converted into ownership. Many
common Good Assets are believed to fall into thic
category and the Edinburgh Waverley Market
certainly does.
More news from the Kinross campaign. Perth and Kinross Council have agreed
to conduct a Review of their Common Good Assets (Council
paper available here 1.1Mb download) - adding to the number
who are now beginning to take this issue seriously.
Orkney Islands Council is apparently conducting a
similar review.
Good to see more grassroots activity concerned with their
local heritage. The Glasgow citystrolls website is a good example and campaign
groups in Edinburgh have set up a website also
called Edinburgh at Risk.
Wednesday 28 February 2007
Some
more letters in the Herald about Glasgow's plans to
transfer control of Common Good assets to a third party.
The Local Government and Transport Committee of the
Scottish Parliament have concluded their evidence taking
on the 3 petitions, PE875 Common Good Assets, PE896
listed Buildings (Consultation on Disposal) and PE961
Common Good Land. They have written to George Lyon MSP,
Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Service Reform and
Parliamentary Business, outlining their concerns and
asking a series of questions. Their letter is
here together with the annex
here.
I think the Petitioners have cause to be quite pleased
at the Committee's enquiry. They certainly appear to
have taken on board the substance of the
Petitions.
Tuesday 23 January 2007
Some news.....
The Scottish Parliament takes evidence this coming Tuesday
as part of their common good enquiry from George Lyon,
Deputy Finance Minister - should be interesting.
Meanwhile the Dumbarton case referred to in 29 January 2006
entry below has reached a decision. Lord Macaulay issued
his decision on 15 December 2006. In brief - the
Dumbarton Boat Club lost.
On 17 November 2006 Tom McCabe the Finance Minister issued
an interesting Parliamentary Answer in which he admitted that:
"Essentially, the Common Good denoted all property of a
Burgh not acquired under statutory powers or held under
special trusts." This is a step forward since now the
Executive accepts the legal definition so often ignored
by Local Authorities.
A story in The Herald yesterday reports that Glasgow City
Council is planning to lease all its Culture and Leisure
Services functions to an arms length charitable company.
Since many of the assets involved (including parks, golf
courses and museums) are common good assets, this
demands to be watched carefully. I wrote a letter to the
Herald which was published along with other good
letters. I've compiled a total of 25 letters that were subsequently written.
Finally, the Edinburgh story moves on. See
Edinburgh page for further details.
Wednesday 22 November 2006
I am back in
action now with a laptop that works. On Tuesday 14 November
I gave evidence to the Local Government and Transport
Committee of the Scottish Parliament who are conducting an
inquiry into Common Good in response to Petitions PE875
Common Good Assets, PE896 listed Buildings (Consultation on
Disposal) and PE961 Common Good Land. Download a copy of
the Official Report. Further evidence was taken yesterday.
The Edinburgh story has moved on - see the
Edinburgh page which includes all relevant
documentation.
Friday 6 October 2006
I am now living
in Addis Ababa but continuing work on Common Good.
Edinburgh Council now prepared a report on Common Good to
go before Resource Management and Audit Scrutiny Panel on
12 October. I've prepared a Response - somewhat hurriedly as my laptop has
to be sent to Kenya for repair and will be away for 3-4
weeks.
Wednesday 3 May 2006
Thanks to Eileen
Thomas from Kinross Community Council
(who are engaged in their
own campaign over common good
property) for
news of plans by Perth and Kinross Council to sell off
property across the region. Some of this must be common
good. See Main Report and Appendix One and Two.
Thursday 27 April 2006
Today I celebrate
a small victory. Giving evidence at the Resource Management
and Audit Scrutiny Panel of the City of Edinburgh Council
on the topic of their Common Good Fund, it was agreed
unanimously by the Committee that they would accept my
recommendation of setting up an independent review into the
administration and management of the Fund. I presented a
dossier of evidence (click here for a copy - 404Kb pdf file) which
persuaded the Committee that there are some serious
problems to sort out.
Thanks are due to my local Councillor, Michael Dixon, for
taking an active interest and securing the topic on the
agenda. Thanks are due also to Councillors Jackson,
Scobbie, Maginnis, Milligan, Munro, Wheeler and Aldridge
for their constructive and intelligent debate on the topic.
Now that they have the evidence and the opportunity to do
something I will sit back for a while and monitor progress.
I will be giving more talks in the coming weeks - see
my Land Reform website
for further
details.
Friday 24 March 2006
I will be giving some talks in the coming weeks. These will
be on the topic of Common Good land and the Community Right
to Buy.
Cupar 30 March 2006
Organised by Gavin Drummond, Secretary, Royal Burgh of
Cupar Community Council
Lockerbie 9 May 2006
Organised by Mairi Telford-Jammeh, Community Planning at
Dumfries & Galloway Council
(possibly followed by a talk in South Ayrshire)
Meanwhile, I am continuing to research the fate of common
good land in Edinburgh. Much seems to have been "lost"
through actions of the Council in failing to properly
record it, transferring it to other accounts or simply
conveniently forgetting about it. I am preparing a dossier
of evidence which will be presented to the Council
including how common good land now worth over £40 million
was leased for 1p per year - not a good
deal!
Tuesday 7 February 2006
The Herald reports growing concerns about the future of
green spaces in Glasgow including plans to convet part of
Victoria Park in the west end into a car park. Regardless
of the merits or otherwise of such plans, much of this land
is probably common good land. I wrote a letter to the
Herald as follows: -
Sir/Madam,
I share the concern of many Glaswegians over developments
in Victoria Park and elsewhere. What is important to
realise, however, is that many of these parks belong to the
citizens of Glasgow and not to the Council. This is because
they form part of the Common Good of the City and the
Council, whilst they hold title, hold it on behalf of the
citizens and have legal duties to administer it in their
interests. I am concerned that Common Good assets may be
disappearing in Glasgow since in a recent survey I
undertook, the Council failed to include any park (even
Glasgow Green) among the assets they held under the Common
Good Account. Perhaps, as is being advocated in England, it
is time to allow local people to take back ownership of
such assets?
yours etc.
Andy Wightman
Sunday 29 January
2006
Interesting news from Dumbarton in the Herald on Saturday.
A small boat club is facing eviction on the orders of a
company called Beriston Ltd., based in the British Virgin
Islands. However, the land forms part of the lands granted
to the Burgh of Dumbarton in the 17th century, i.e. it is
common good land and belongs to the people of Dumbarton. In
recent years it appears that a number of titles have been
granted to landowners in ignorance of the fact that it is
common good land. As a result, the boat club is contesting
the case in the Court of Session.
On Friday, the Scotsman carried a report and a letter from four academics at Edinburgh
university lamenting the state of the City of
Edinburgh's archives. It is a little appreciated fact
but the records of former Burghs are part of the Common
Good - the moveable assets of the former Burgh - and
thus belong to the citizens. In response I wrote a
letter to the Scotsman as follows: -
Dear
Sir/Madam,
I congratulate Dr Pat Dennison, Professor Devine, Professor
Lynch and Dr Murdoch for having raised the issue of the
state of the Edinburgh City Archives in such a forceful
manner. What should be more widely known is that the City's
archives are an asset of the City of Edinburgh's Common
Good and thus belong to the citizens of Edinburgh. The
Council therefore have a legal duty to preserve and
administer these records. It they are failing, then Section
231 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 gives any
seven local government electors within the City of
Edinburgh the power to apply to a sheriff to make
directions to ensure that the Council's legal
responsibilities are properly discharged on behalf of the
citizens to whom these records belong. Is anyone
interested?
Yours
Andy Wightman
Wednesday 25 January 2006
Contacts across Scotland are beginning to report stirrings
in Local Authorities. Chartularies are being opened up and
deed boxes are being rummaged through. One recent story
involves Maybole Golf Course in Ayr. Rumours that South
Ayrshire Council were planning to sell it prompted a
lengthy piece in the Herald on 18 January. South Ayrshire
Council (SAC) deny any plans to do so but also report that
there is no record of the land being common good. Actually,
SAC report no common good land in Maybole at all which is
simply not credible - in fact it is untrue. Maybole, like
other burghs in Scotland, held an extensive portfolio of
assets in the name of the Town Council. What happened to
thse after 1975? Well most of them are still there and
others have been sold. Where has the money gone? Good
question - it should have gone into the Maybole Common Good
Fund but it hasn't. The Maybole Common Good Fund stands at
a paltry £1200 or thereabouts. This is all causing a
stushie partly because there is a by-election in Maybole
and the result may decide whether the Conservative's recent
takeover of the Council is secure. The new leader of the
Council is Gibson MacDonald (edit 13 Nov 2007 - Gibson
Macdonald sadly passed away on 27 October 2007) who has a
track record of taking an active interest in the Common
Good. So maybe
Maybole will get their Common Good assets back!
Miss Mary Mackenzie's Petition (245Kb pdf file) to the Scotish
Parliament's Petitions Committee is going to be
considered on 19 April. Contact your MSP to stress how
important this topic is.
I've been digging around my own patch in Edinburgh
(see Evening News
story) where the
Council is selling off land to developers for £
millions. We are discovering that much of it is common
good but when the Council took the decision to sell it
off, the officials did not inform Councillors and the
money does not appear to be going into the Common Good
Fund. We will keep digging.
Corrections & Updates
Aberdeen City Council report that they have an accurate
record of their common good assets. This is contrary to
what was reported to me by their Property Department in the
course of my research but this may be due to a
misunderstanding of the nature of the research (I suspect
they thought we were interested only in ancient common
land). So apologies to Aberdeen City council for any
confusion and I look forward to recieving further details
in due course.
Stirling Council apologies for not having responded to
request for information in early 2005 and has not provided
details of 5 sites in Strling but nothing more and nothing
in Dunblane, Doune, Callander etc. More digging
required!
Friday 9 December 2005
Scottish
Parliamentary Written Answer
Common Good Fund
S2W-21172 -
Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP) (Date Lodged 28
November 2005):
To ask the
Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question
S1W-25757 by Peter Peacock of 23 May 2002, the report
prepared for Audit Scotland in November 2004, which
investigated complaints surrounding Scottish Borders
Council's stewardship of its Common Good Fund by Scottish
Borders Council, and Petition PE875 by Miss Mary Mackenzie
in respect of common good assets, whether it now considers
that there should be a Scotland-wide register and record of
all moveable and heritable common good assets, including
details of the local authorities that have the stewardship
of the assets and providing easy public accessibility to
the register.
Answered by Mr
Tom McCabe (7 December 2005):
We have no plans to commission a
national register of common good assets held by local
authorities. It is the responsibility of local authorities
as trustees to manage assets held for the common good
according to sound asset management principles.
All moveable and heritable common good assets which are the
property of the local authority are accounted for within
the audited accounts of each authority. Local authority
accounts are subject to annual audits by Audit Scotland,
and these are accessible by law to any member of the
public. Any member of the public can access local authority
accounts and performance outcome information under section
101 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, section 13
of the Local Government in Scotland 2003 and also under the
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
All local authorities are also required, by the Local
Government (Scotland) Act 2003, to adhere to proper
accounting practice, including having in place asset
management plans. These plans are intended to ensure sound
financial stewardship of all assets including common good
assets and I would support any moves by local authorities
which provide greater transparency in their financial
governance.
Thursday 8 December 2005
I wrote a letter to the Oban Times in response to the piece
that appeared on 1 Dec (see below). It was not published
but I did send it to Oban Community Council. Here is the
letter.
Dear
Sir/Madam,
I note that Argyll & Bute Council are continuing to
block any meaningful discussion of the future management of
the Oban Common Good Fund. The citizens of Oban should be
aware that this fund does not represent an asset of the
Council (see page 32 of 2004/05 Argyll & Bute Accounts)
but is the property of the citizens of Oban. They should
also be aware that there are many areas of land and
buildings in Oban that are also the property of the
citizens of Oban but that the Council's Annual Report fails
to identify or account for these.
Under the law as it stands Common Good Funds are managed by
Local Authorities and Community Councils have no legal
right of representation. However, in a recent report we
published (Common Good Land. A review and Critique), we
make the case for new legislation that would allow
statutorily incorporated community bodies to take back
title to all the assets of their Common Good Fund. This, I
believe, is the route that Oban Community Council would be
advised to follow.
Yours
Andy Wightman
Thursday 1 December 2005
The following story appeared on the front page of the Oban
Times today (1 Dec 2005)
Oban Common Good Fund Debate
Oban Community Council wants more influence over how Oban
Common Good Fund, currently valued at £825,000 is spent.
But Argyll and Bute Council disagrees and has said it is
the body which is entrusted with the running of the Fund.
Currently £32,000 is earmarked with income of £50,000
expected. In comparison Campbeltown Common Good Fund is
valued at £770,000. Councillor Duncan MacIntyre said:
'Members of the community council have been discussing this
issue for months. As far as we are concerned, we are acting
on behalf of Argyll and bute Council, which oversees the
running of the Oban Common Good Fund. If the people of the
community council wish to pursue the discussion of this
issue they need to write to the secretary of the Fund
proposing a meeting.'
