Great urban green campaigning model from Glasgow

[tony at cultureshop.org.uk]

Glasgow Children's Wood saved from development
After a five year battle to save Glasgow’s green space, campaigners are hoping to pave the way for new Scottish legislation
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/02/glasgow-childrens-wood-saved-from-development?CMP=share_btn_tw

 Patrick Harvie.
 Green MSP Patrick Harvie has been a long-time supporter of the campaign to save Children’s Wood. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian
Libby Brooks
Monday 2 January 2017 07.00 GMT Last modified on Monday 2 January 2017 07.02 GMT

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North Kelvin Meadow – or Children’s Wood, as it has been renamed by campaigners – has been saved from housing developers after a hard-fought five year battle, some two decades on from when locals first sowed grass seed on the abandoned sports ground.

In contrast to the city’s nearby Botanic Gardens, the three acre Children’s Wood is a ramshackle affair, offering a very different kind of natural resource to local residents who have gradually transformed the meadow from a derelict site into a thriving civic space, close to the fashionable West End.

Having been declared “surplus” in the mid-1990s, there have since been a number of attempts to develop the area, most recently the plans first proposed by developers New City Vision in 2011 to build ninety upmarket flats on the site.

After a lengthy dispute, which saw cash-strapped Glasgow city council arguing that a negative outcome would deprive it of funds to deliver crucial facilities across the city, the decision was referred up to an independent ‘reporter’, and then to the Scottish government itself, whose decision last month emphasised the importance of open space and biodiversity in the heart of the city.

Now campaigners hope this outcome could set a precedent for other areas and help mould policy around land and community empowerment. Children’s Wood campaigners now plan to ask the council to lease or sell them the land, pursuing their community right to buy ‘abandoned or neglected land’ that was created in 2015 under one of Scotland’s most potentially progressive pieces of legislation in recent times.

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“What we need is a fundamental shift in understanding that green space within cities is important,” says Emily Cutts, a researcher who has been involved with the campaign since its inception. “The fact that the government rejected these plans is great, and we hope it may result in a change in planning policy, so that other communities don’t have to go to a public inquiry, or have independent reporters involved.”

While Scotland has seen a groundswell of local activism around land use in recent years, it has mainly revolved around rural settings – like the £500,000 community buyout of an ancient Caledonian pine forest in the Highlands announced in December. Cutts hopes this success will motivate people in urban areas, adding simply: “Councils still don’t value green space over housing”.

Children’s Wood has attracted a cross-section of community support, but Cutts is aware of accusations that the campaign has been dominated by middle class residents able to corral the support of the likes of children’s author Julia Donaldson, comedian Frankie Boyle and Game of Thrones actress Kate Dickie.

In response that this charge, Cutts said: “It’s about meeting 21st century needs, and its not nimbyist. We’re always looking at the bigger picture, and specific problems in the area. For example, with food poverty, we’re growing vegetables for an outdoor food bank.”

The wood has also been used in projects that have targeted obesity in young people, loneliness in older residents, and most recently provided refugee newcomers to Glasgow a different means of learning about the city.

Children’s Wood has even offered itself as a research resource, linking up with Glasgow University’s psychology department on a project that compared children’s attention spans after spending time in a variety of locations: the conclusion was that concentration was best after spending time in a natural environment.

Outdoor education has been a huge part of the Children’s Wood ethos, based on the principle that urban children should not require money to have access to nature.

“Five years ago, we really wanted to build something for the whole community: now we have relationships with 20 schools, both in the West End and Maryhill, and two employees working on outdoor learning,” Cutts said.

Declaring himself “thrilled” at the decision, Scottish Greens co-convenor and MSP for Glasgow Patrick Harvie, a long-standing supporter of the North Kelvin meadow campaign, sounded a word of warning around community buy-outs more generally.

“Transferring a piece of land into community ownership is in many ways positive but it shouldn’t be necessary. We obviously need housing investment, but the point is to be building for a social purpose, not speculative investment. There are plenty of brownfield sites in Glasgow that developers don’t look at with eager eyes because they aren’t as profitable. When the community is making good use of land like this they should be left alone,” he said.

With a newly expanded cohort of Green MSPs in Holyrood since May’s elections – including veteran land reform campaigner Andy Wightman – there have been high hopes for them pushing the Scottish government towards some truly transformative reform of land and planning legislation.

Current Scottish land reform legislation, which has been criticised for its timidity, had its final passage in March, just before the Scottish parliament elections. During the vote, a ground-breaking Green amendment to tax vacant and derelict land was voted down, despite research indicating it would have raised £250m a year and forced developers to make better use of the land they had.