Community Land Purchase

Thank you to everyone who attended the community meetings organised last week in Glenmidge and the surrounding villages. Altogether, 40+ people attending the meetings and indicated that they supported the idea of acquiring the land for the community.

On the strength of this support the Glenmidge Burn Project made an offer for the land as interim purchaser. It was accepted and is being scrutinised by lawyers. There are boundary issues which may take a little time to resolve.

Once this is done, the first steps will be for the community to:

  1. assemble a steering group out of those who expressed support, and anyone else interested, to take the project forward.
  2. identify and form an appropriate body, such as a SCIO or CIC, to manage the project in the long term.
  3. contact the Scottish Land Fund, Foundation Scotland, local community councils and other suitable funding bodies.
  4. develop a community, economic and environmental plan.
  5. raise the funds to re-purchase the land in the community’s name.

We do not have to be inactive while the legalities are settled. We can collect ideas about what we would like to see happen on the land, and people can indicate availability for the steering group.

Please send ideas and if willing to be a part of the steering group, your name, to: glenmidgeburnproject@gmail.com. Please contribute as many ideas as you like even if not volunteering for the steering group.

We will have a public meeting as soon as we know the boundary issues have been resolved and an open discussion about all aspects of the project and all ideas suggested.

Other things to bear in mind:

  1. When the community owns this land it will control what happens on it.
  2. Given the nature of the land and its situation, a combined environmental – community development project is the most likely to attract funding. The scope within this description is enormous.
  3. The project needs only to be economically viable – it merely has to sustain itself.
  4. Mark Zygadlo is acting as interim purchaser with the financial support of an anonymous donor who must be repaid within two years.
  5. Funds to re-purchase will probably be raised from several sources, possibly including crowdfunding. However, there is no obligation on community members to contribute their own money.
  6. The success of this sort of endeavour relies entirely on the willingness of the community to get involved and make it happen. It is a community project and will reflect and benefit us all.

Thanks again for your support and interest. It is amazing what can happen if we all work together. Please keep your ideas coming, everything is useful and anything is possible!