Rural Economies: Diversify or Die? Small steps towards Quality of Life in the East Neuk: The Steadings Project Balcaskie Pittenweem Fife

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1 Rural Economies: Diversify or Die? Small steps towards Quality of Life in the East Neuk: The Steadings Project Balcaskie Pittenweem Fife

2 Toby Anstruther Balcaskie Estate a member of East Neuk estates

3 Goal: Quality of Life for the East Neuk & landward Improving Quality of Life Adopting human & community timescales (not administrative & political ones)

4 Quality of life: themes Capacity & resources Skills Physical space Funding Market / customers Supply chains & logistics Identity, self-confidence & aspiration Aspiration Authority - seeking forgiveness, not permission Self-reliance & resilience Scale: human & community

5 Quality of life: projects & organisations East Neuk Community Action Plan [ENCAP] East Neuk Community Awards Fund - a community foundation Food from Fife RSPB, Red Squirrels, hedge planting & other biodiversity projects Community initiatives (AIA Dreel Halls, Coastal Rowing, etc.) Steadings Project

6 Quality of Life: projects & themes ENCAP ENCAF Food from Fife Biodiversity projects Steadings project Skills Space Funding Supply Chain logistics Aspiration & identity Authority (not permission) Resilience

7 The steadings project Traditional farm steadings, no longer fit for modern agricultural use Repair & upgrade to allow use as workshops & studios Clustered uses to encourage sharing of skills and opportunities communities of interest & geography Not converted to residential as dormitory-use offers few enduring benefits to the locality& community (despite the uplift in capital value that this change would bring the owner/ developer)

8 The steadings project Existing occupiers include: Luthier (& guitar-maker) Orthotic in-sole maker Nursery School Local joinery business Creel-pot maker Steadings in prospect: The Bowhouse: food hub for production and wholesale food. Occupiers will include the local bakery (with upgraded bakery), brewery, meat-hanging & preparation area and a regular covered food market

9 The steadings project Repair & conversion done w/o Planning Permission. Retrospective permissions involve less paperwork and risk [for the Local Authority] as use is self-evident. This is a more Community-Responsive approach Incremental work to suit demand and the capacity of the local trades makes the project more responsive Marketed only through word-of-mouth to encourage good community uses and not just the highest rent. Requires connections to multiple local communities Responsibility of use and mix set through goodneighbour common sense, not remote rule Repaired simply and appropriately for their use, but in line with building codes so that future permissions could be sought if necessary

10 The steadings project: conclusions Administrative overhead It is important to just get on and do something. Delay & expense of local bureaucracy would kill the project Bureaucracy has become an end in itself: For the cost of a tree-survey relating to three trees, we could plant 800 trees For the cost of a bat survey, we can install 5-10 bat roost boxes housing hundreds of bats The administrative overhead favours big business over small business A reality-check is needed: does this piece of paper help the project or just cover my arse! Grants (SRDP, LEADER+, etc.) Often not worth the overhead at a recent meeting of LEADER recipients, none said they would apply again, knowing what they do about the process Cashflow-funding of grant-aided projects is a major issue: only those who don t need the money can afford to fund the project and take the risk that the grant may not be paid in full. This must run counter to the central purpose of the grants programme Planning Planning and Govt. policies change too often and are too short-term The planning process takes too long: Micro & small businesses cannot see or plan beyond 12 months and need simple, quick next steps to test their ideas & follow their impulses Planning should consider descriptive, not prescriptive use-permissions. In retail locations this trial trading is proving successful. It should be applied more broadly Consider protection of key non-residential space & businesses in rural areas. A broken supply-chain affects all links. Clusters are worth more than the sum of their parts

11 The steadings project: opportunities Micro enterprise zones Would offer ring-fenced, simpler control & encouragement to creation of new employment space in rural areas The risk of misapplication could be minimized by using soft-loans, instead of grants and/or Rates-exemptions Ring-fence places where the bureaucracy can accept risk associated with experimentation and exploration by new businesses Time scales Long-term & stables policies & support programmes would be cheaper to administer and more effective. Improve, don t replace Codification Use successful case-studies as the basis for new models Accept that a diverse and resilient model is messy and hard to describe or control: that is why it is diverse & resilient

12 Steadings project: Swankie Creels Tom Swankie About me: why I started Swankie Creels! What went right! premises! internet/facebook & word-ofmouth! What went wrong! paperwork! pricing! Would I do it again?!