A SEDA Land Conversation
Building Futures in Rural Scotland 2 – Can local government lead?
Online on Monday 9th October 4-6pm 2023
Art by Eleanor Fraser.
This is the second in the series of SEDA Land Conversations building on its successful Building Futures Conversation held on 18 April 2023.
The overall aim of the series is to stimulate more sustainable place making in rural Scotland and explore ways to reverse depopulation in these areas. We will primarily focus on housing, communal spaces and workplaces using existing buildings and new build. We will also consider the infrastructure needed to make sustainable communities such as good broadband connections and care for the elderly and young.
The aim of this Conversation is to stimulate local government into more proactive engagement with communities, housing associations, housing cooperatives and self builders to promote more public interest-led developments and investigate alternative funding models. We will also explore a one stop shop to support communities and consider ways of rewarding sustainable place making.
We will look at inspirational models such as Architype’s Springhill Co-housing in Gloucestershire – the first new build co-housing scheme in the UK.
PANEL
CHAIR: Debbie Mackay
Director, Planning Savills & Rural Housing Scotland
Debbie is a director in Savills Planning team and Head of Residential and Rural Planning for Scotland. After learning her trade in the public sector as a Planning and Economic Development officer in Argyll and Bute, Debbie set up the Smiths Gore Planning Service. At Savills Debbie specialises in large scale masterplanning and rural planning. She is the Planning Advisor for a large number of Scottish Estates, a Director of Rural Housing Scotland and sits on the National Policy Group of Scottish Land and Estates. Debbie is driven by a particular interest in the provision of affordable rural homes and the revitalisation of rural Scotland and has recently lead research teams on rural planning policy.
Bea Nichol
Senior planning officer, South Lanarkshire Council
Bea has always worked in rural planning, first at Scottish Borders, then in Perth & Kinross and most recently, in South Lanarkshire. My passion comes from my childhood growing up in remote Herefordshire. The issues of today had already begun. Locals were being bought out of the area by wealthier incomers, rural services were diminishing, and it was increasingly difficult to live and work without a car. I moved to Cardiff and then to Edinburgh before I could afford to move back to the countryside, further exacerbating the issue for the next generation of young people. As planners, we are placemakers and it is our responsibility to shape communities that provide an equitable choice for future generations.
Robbie Calvert
Planning policy officer, Scottish Borders Council
Robbie is a chartered town planner currently working as a Planning Policy Officer for Scottish Borders Council. His career in planning has included a mixture of national policy work previously working for the Royal Town Planning Institute and local decision making in his role as a development management planner for the Cairngorms National Park Authority.
Sam Parsons
Estate manager, Balcaskie Estate
Sam moved to Balcaskie in 2008 when Toby Anstruther took over the running of the estate from his father to become estate director and to make Balcaskie his family home. The Anstruthers want Balcaskie to be an exemplar for social and environmental stewardship creating sustainable communities while enhancing wildlife and biodiversity. Since 2012 Sam has project managed the conversion of many of the redundant farm steadings into over 40 commercial units and 60 residential properties, each with its own renewable energy source.
Craig White
CEO, Agile Property
Craig is CEO at Agile Property and Homes. Agile delivers low-carbon, affordable homes to those in housing need. Prior to setting up Agile, Craig founded the Chartered RIBA Architectural Practice, White Design and ModCell Straw Technology, prefabricated, renewable building systems. This combination of design and fabrication lead to one of the first construction products to make large-scale, carbon-negative building a commercial reality.
Matthew Benson
Director Rettie & Co.
Matthew is a Director at Rettie & Co, heading up the Investment and Development teams, with particular focus on Build to Rent and affordable housing in Scotland. He was awarded the Saltire Award for Innovation in Housing Finance, which was delivered through the Resonance® funding model developed by Rettie & Co. Matthew works closely with the Scottish Government, local authorities, SFT, regeneration agencies and others to look at new ways of stimulating housebuilding and the delivery of affordable housing, and developed much of the thinking behind the National Housing Trust initiative. Matthew is a Non-Executive Director of Springfield Properties plc and was the founding Chair of bio-tech businesses EctoPharma Ltd and Ryboquin Ltd.
Jonathan Hines
Managing director, Architype
Jonathan has been an architect since 1987 after graduating from Cardiff University. Jonathan became a director of Architype in 1989, established the Hereford office in 1996, and became overall Managing Director in 2015. He has overseeing the delivery of many of Architype’s pioneering projects such as Twyford Barn, The Genesis Project, St Luke’s Primary School and the UK’s first Passivhaus projects. Jonathan is a member of the Design Review Panel of the Design Commission for Wales and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 2011 was named in a list of the top 50 people most influencing sustainable development in the UK.
artistic contributions
Alasdair Whyte
“Gur fad' 'am thàmh mi gu tostach sàmhach” (“Long have I remained silent”)
Alasdair was brought up on the Inner Hebridean island of Mull. He is now based in Glasgow where he is research fellow in Celtic onomastics at the University of Glasgow. His principal musical interests are in interpreting traditional Gaelic songs, particularly those from his own area, and composing original music and song, particularly in Gaelic. He was involved in traditional music from an early age, having been brought up within a family of musicians and singers. Alasdair won the men’s gold medal at the Royal National Mòd in 2006 aged 19. He was named Gaelic Ambassador of the Year by The Scottish Government in 2019 and in 2020.
Lisa MacDonald
“Am Fearann” (“Land Reform Bill”)
Lisa MacDonald is a poet, writer, singer, teacher, lecturer and PhD student who lives in Achiltibuie with her family. Her deep investment in place and community, both local and in a wider sense, takes many forms: from conducting the local Gaelic choir to serving on boards and committees and linking with wider political and philosophical movements, she draws strength from connections and shared concern.
Dr Chris Powici
”All Tomorrow's Houses”
Chris is a poet and Teaching Fellow, University of Stirling. His poetry focuses on human and natural environments and how the ‘natural’ and ‘human’ worlds overlap one another. His poems range from the shed door to the back of beyond, from a rain swept railway station to a graveyard on Skye. Chris edited the literary magazine Northwords Now for seven years. He lives in Dunblane, and teaches English and Creative Writing for The Open University, the University of Stirling, and in the local community. His poems have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies including Gutter, BBC Wildlife, New Writing Scotland and Scotia Extremis. His latest collection is This Weight of Light, published by Red Squirrel Press in spring 2015.
