A SEDA Land Conversation

Building Futures in Rural Scotland 3 – how to help communities

Online on Monday 30th October 4-6pm 2023

 

Art by Eleanor Fraser.

 

This is the third 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 will be to delve deeper into the obstacles facing communities that are seeking to develop alternative housing schemes. Solutions might include the need for more support for facilitators to help the building process flow more smoothly and quickly.

We will look at inspirational models such as John Gilbert Architects’ East Whins Ecovillage at Findhorn in Morayshire and the Balcaskie Estate in Fife.

panel

CHAIR: Megan MacInnes

Scottish Land Commissioner / Applecross Community Company

Megan has over 20 years' experience working on land reform in Scotland and internationally, particularly throughout Southeast Asia, with community groups, NGOs, governments, international organisations and large agribusiness companies. She has considerable expertise in protecting land rights, land management, community empowerment, natural resource governance and human rights. She grew up on Skye and is now part of a crofting family in Applecross. She is a Scottish Land Commissioner and the Local Development Manager for the Applecross Community Company, where she is responsible for delivering a community-led affordable housing project.

SPEAKERS

Ewen McLachlan

Development Officer, Assynt Development Trust

Ewen McLachlan has had a long and varied career encompassing everything from journalism, radio producer and presenter to political adviser by way of managing a Cinema Paradiso in the Southwest of Scotland, community art production and running International film festivals. Ewen joined Assynt Development Trust in 2018. Working with his job share partner, Adam Pellant, he has helped deliver many significant projects including the Assynt eBike Project and the Assynt Motorhome Waste Project.  He runs the Discover Assynt tourism marketing organisation. Consultations include local democracy and climate action, planning consultations including Assynt Housing Needs Analysis.

Ariane Burgess

MSP Scottish Green Party

Ariane is the Scottish Green Party’s MSP for the Highlands & Islands. She is the convenor of the Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee and sits on the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee. Prior to becoming an MSP Ariane worked in permaculture design, regenerative leadership and as a filmmaker based in New York. She also served for two years as part of the women’s caucus on the UN’s commission on sustainable development.

 
 

Kate Hagmann

COSLA resources spokesperson, SNP councillor Dumfries and Galloway

First elected to Dumfries and Galloway council in 2017 and appointed COSLA Resources Spokesperson, covering local Government Finance, Workforce and Digital in June 2022, Katie has a wide-ranging portfolio while continuing to Study Social Anthropology at Edinburgh University. She is currently a member of the Dumfries and Galloway Housing Forum, former chair of the Economy and Resources committee and former co-chair of Finance, Procurement & Transformation Committee. She sat as a trustee and board member on various organisations including the UNESCO Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, The Southern Upland Partnership, The Whithorn Trust and has led Wigtownshire Women's Aid as Chair of the Board of Directors. Katie currently sits on the Scottish Governmetn Tax Advisory Group, Scottish Government Fair Work Oversite group and co-chairs the Joint Working Group on Sources of Local Government Funding and Council Tax Reform.

 
 

Polly Chapman

CEO Impact Hub Inverness

Polly Chapman is the CEO of HISEZ, which owns and operates Impact Hub Inverness, a coworking space that is part of the international network of Impact Hubs. As well as running the Hub she is also a business adviser working to support social enterprises and SMEs in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. She previously worked at Aberdeen University as a researcher on various aspects of rural life, including a major study on Rural Disadvantage in Scotland.  She recently worked with colleagues at Newcastle University and SRUC to revisit some of this work, exploring the experience of financial hardship in rural Britain (see www.rurallives.co.uk).  

 

Wendy Reid

Director Rural Housing Scotland, development manager, Isle of Ulva

Wendy currently works for the North West Mull Community Woodland Company(NWMCWC) as the Ulva Development Manager. The island was the subject of a successful community buy-out in 2018 with a view to undertaking an ambitious development programme aimed at facilitating sustainable repopulation and regeneration. Critical to this is the provision of suitable, affordable housing.  For Prior to taking on her current role, Wendy worked for the Development Trusts Association Scotland, supporting development trusts across Scotland.

 

Chris Morgan (replacing Matt Bridgestock)

Director, John Gilbert Architects Ltd 

Chris is an architect and a Director at John Gilbert Architects with over 30 years’ experience in ecological design and sustainable development. He has maintained a range of experience from masterplanning and energy infrastructure, through to award-winning and innovative architecture, research and teaching. 

Previously a Chair of the Scottish Ecological Design, Chris is one of only four architects with advanced sustainable architecture accreditation from the RIAS. He is a design review panellist for Architecture + Design Scotland and has certification in Passivhaus design, building biology and permaculture. 

artistic contributions

Lisa MacDonald

Cathy

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.

Pauline Prior-Pitt

The Telephone Call

Pauline is a poet based in North Uist. She regularly performs at festivals and literature events and has appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Pick of the Week and With Great Pleasure, and on Channel 4 and Central Television. She is an entertaining after dinner speaker. Her collection North Uist Sea Poems won the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for pamphlet poetry in 2006. Pauline writes about the relationships between men and women, family life, the domestic scene, gynaecology, political issues, dresses, the ageing process, and love and death. In her book ‚Storm Biscuits‘ she writes about the landscape of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.

 

Karine Polwart

Salter’s Road

A gentle eulogy for Polwart'selderly neighbour, Molly Kristensen, who lived on Salter's Road – the old salt smuggling route that ran inland through The Lothians from Prestonpans on the River Forth. Karine is an award winning Scottish singer, songwriter, composer and essayist. Her songs combine folk influences and myth with a variety of ecological, social and political issues.