posting leaflets for my community center

Delivering leaflets for community council

I had volunteered to deliver leaflets around my local communities houses, raising awareness of the meeting we have planned to save our local community centre, I have had many happy experiences in and around this community centre, I couldn’t believe it was going to be closed if we did not take it over, this is done with what is called a community asset transfer initiative, I pledged to do all I could, to help make sure we did not lose this excellent community asset to some - private investor who; could basically flatten it and turn it into private housing for sale or let. The Community Council printed off 2000 leaflets for posting through local doors, I made this a personal mission to do as many as I could! I also hoped I would get an opportunity to explain to some of the people I was delivering the leaflets to, just exactly what was happening and how we could come together as a community and help this asset grow not be destroyed.

This turned out to be reasonable fun for me, I exercise lots SO; I incorporated leaflet posting into my daily runs, I did have a few good conversations with some local residents - not too many negative ones, when I was a very young man at age 12 I became a paperboy, I delivered newspapers from age 12 until I started work at 16, I remember it as a tedious chore as a child, doorsteps and letter boxes were different then, this time I enjoyed delivering the leaflets but modern letterboxes can sometimes be a little too secure - you need to force the leaflets through tough brushes a lot of times, some people actually hate getting any leaflets or unwanted mail through their door, one letterbox even had a sign - no leaflets no pamphlets no junk mail no religious sects respect our privacy! I read this sign - pamphlet in hand and contemplated should I proceed posting? as this is not trying to sell anybody anything, it’s not part of any religion, it’s not junk mail (in my opinion) and then I considered their opinion? this made me not deliver the leaflet! anybody with a sign like this on their door, is highly unlikely to be interested in the local community centre, perhaps this person should be living someplace a bit more isolated. I pictured an angry man shaking his fist shouting I hate everyone, lol one leaflet saved but he (presumptions I know) will likely be the one person shouting I never heard nothing about this! Some of the conversations I had were really good, I got an opportunity to explain - this has absolutely nothing to do with any political parties alignment, it’s not a problem for this community alone, it’s not even a problem for Falkirk alone as a district, or Stirling as a region or even the Scottish Government, this is A UK wide perhaps even European wide potentially globally wide financial situation, even China has a massive local government debt, this hidden debt of local governments is threating the national economies, of nearly all countries worldwide Sometimes; I had to explain all of this, as; some people angrily - straight away! would put blame on local councillors or certain political parties or the Scottish Government, I explained I do not represent any of these organisations! I would personally love to blame the Torries or Westminster - but that would be incorrect, as the way the country/world is managed right now, no political party can prevent this transfer of public assets into private hands, the closure of our community centre and countless more all over the country, will go ahead regardless who you vote for, of course there is some people that will not believe this, they are intitled to believe it’s just my opinion, I would urge those individuals to do their own research, I have visited some community centres that haver been taken over by the community and spoken with sustainability officers, some communities have grown very strong from this posting these leaflets at least gave me a chance to talk about it to some people that are curious and want to help be part of the solution - the solution is that - unless we as a community take it over as a community asset transfer, then it will be demolished. so, our local council doesn’t get more into debt with energy bills and running costs, BUT. hopefully we as a community will be able to make it a sustainable asset, we can be proud of, not a drain on local government funds, this can be done if we come together, but not if we have a blame culture and everybody thinking it’s somebody else’s problem, caused by somebody else so; - why should they fix it. I was surprised in the end that most people when sober and in surroundings they felt safe in, were open to this debating Politically speaking about local issues, the country of Scotland of late has become highly charged politically, with what seems at times to me like - no single political party is trying to be part of the solution, they all seem hell bent on blaming each other for the situation this country finds itself in, the Welsh government have installed a future generations minister! perhaps we should do the same? I for one don’t want to be explaining to the next generation’s children, how wonderful a community we had with excellent facilities and people looking after each other, but; we threw it all away because nobody cared enough to even bother trying to save it

We posted all off the leaflets through as many doors around the community as we had enough leaflets for, we ran short towards the end, I took it upon myself to put posters up in the local ski centre - which was a bit of a cheek as they are under threat of closure also, I had a long chat with the worker at ski slope whose job is under threat, explaining to him what needs to be done if they are to save the ski slope as an asset for the area, I would have loved to have made an alliance and perhaps linked the two local assets, the ski course could be expanded into the local woods and perhaps up into Falkirk through a network of ski runs, Nordic style ski runs done either by roller skis or Nordic style on track, I also was posting a leaflet/ asking at the golf course shop, I also went along to the local train station and asked the staff? if they could put a poster up at the train station, I later noticed the black bull had posted up the leaflet I had gave to them, I haven’t checked if the garage Klondike or Julie’s veg posted up the leaflets I asked them to? I also haven’t heard if my mum managed to post one up in the bowling club, if anybody within a two-mile radius say`s they have not heard about the upcoming meeting now - I would be shocked! Especially as I’ve been asking all the people I’ve spoken to - talk to their neighbour’s friends and family about the situation regards the local community centre, try and attend the meeting at least even better volunteer to help

A few days ago, Birmingham City Council filed for bankruptcy, the local media and countrywide media made it look like this was a failure on behalf of yet another Labour run local government! they did not point out just how many other Tory ran councils throughout the whole of England are in massive debt, the SNP ran Councils/ local government in Scotland get the blame from the media, which is blatant corrupt lies, the English counties have no SNP to blame but they are riddled with countless tory led local governments communities with huge debts and closing down public assets, its wasted energy blaming any political party Here is some information I received by email from - local recovery group network, about other successful community asset takeovers that have; taken place across the country we can reach out and learn from these other community assets. Once we get our committee organised

Hi Kenny, As we move into September, Local Recovery just wanted to update you on some of the great work that is going on around Scotland to improve investment in communities. Following the closing of the Regeneration Capital Grants fund in June, we are now looking forward to the outline of the third round of the Levelling Up Fund, a UK-wide fund for major projects. In the last round, Local Recovery worked with a number of projects to drive investment in places across Scotland. We’ll be looking forward to keeping you informed as the process develops. Community Ownership Fund A new UK Community Ownership Fund bidding window opened on 30 August and will run into October. Local Recovery has signposted a number of projects to the COF, which provides grants of up to £1 million to voluntary and community groups to run important community assets for the benefit of the community. In July, nine projects in Scotland shared over £2 million in support from the fund. This included projects from renovating the Laxdale Hall near Stornoway to the regeneration of the Silverburn Flax Mill in Fife into an important visitor attraction for the area. If you think that the Community Ownership Fund might be helpful to a project near you, please do check the prospectus on the UK Government website or get in touch with Local Recovery who will be able to help. A local round-up • Local Recovery has previously highlighted the terrific work being brought forward in Dumbarton, after West Dunbartonshire Council was successful in being awarded £20 million from the Levelling Up Fund in 2021. The award will mean some major regeneration work in the town centre, including the redevelopment of the dated Artizan centre. The council is running a public consultation and is keen to hear local residents views on the proposals, running until 9 October and you can get in touch with them here. A public consultation event is also being held on Thursday 28 September at the site. • In East Ayrshire the Palace Theatre and Grand Hall is set to close for 18 months at the start of 2024 as work gets underway on the “Cultural Kilmarnock” scheme, which received £20 million in support from the Levelling Up Fund in January. • The new Barrhead South train station in East Renfrewshire has received approval of its outline plans for £2 million in support from the Glasgow city region deal, a collaborative project between the UK and Scottish governments alongside local partners. Construction on the new rail link to Glasgow Central is expected to begin in June next year. • In Edinburgh, major work to renovate the Granton gasholder and turn it into an accessible public space has begun – part of a long-term strategy to regenerate the district’s waterfront area. The project has received over £16 million from the UK Levelling Up Fund, with an additional £1 million from the Scottish Government to support a public park within the scheme. • On 18 August, £80 million in support was confirmed for Glasgow and the North East of Scotland as part of the UK roll-out of investment zones, aiming to grow local business and create jobs. Community council group We have received a great deal of interest from people involved in community councils in the creation of a community council group for Local Recovery supporters which we are looking to launch in the coming weeks. Community councils are our most local level of government, representing your local area, and have a legal requirement to be consulted on a range of local developments. If you are involved in your local community council, and are interested in being kept informed, please do get in touch at info@local-recovery.com Best wishes, The Local Recovery Team