By Bruce Fegen 29 Aug 2009 the Courier link here

FIFE COUNCIL’S external auditors have told the local authority it needs to improve the way it looks after the Common Good funds.

  TO KEEP UP TO DATE WITH COMMON GOOD ISSUES IN SCOTLAND PLEASE VISIT LAND REFORM EXPERT ANDY WIGHTMAN'S SITE

SCOTTISH COMMONS 

and City Stroll's 

COMMON GOOD WATCH

(There is Common Good Land involved in the proposed land sale by the council to Caltongate developers Mountgrange)

In recent years the idea of community ownership of land and assets has been enthusiastically embraced by politicians across the UK and particularly in Scotland. In a country where over half the privately owned rural land is still held by a mere 352 landowners, land reform now allows communities a pre-emptive right to buy land when it comes onto the market.

But before having embraced this new fashionable idea, politicians might have paused to consider the fate of the common land that already existed. Had they done so they would have realised that community ownership is nothing new.

Before the Reformation, as much as half of Scotland was held in some form of common ownership. There were extensive Crown commons that had never been feudalised, commonties in every parish for the use of the common people, extensive burgh commons which provided income and sustenance to ScotlandÕs burghs and a whole array of mosses, loans, greens and other forms of communistic arrangement.
As it happens, common ownership of land is a very old idea.

Through in Glasgow at The Pearce Institute,. Govan,  on Saturday 26th January is a day of film, workshops, childrens activities etc. There is a film and workshop on the Common Good see all details here CommonGood

Through in Glasgow at The Pearce Institute on Saturday 26th January is a day of film, workshops, childrens activities etc. There is a film and workshop on the Common Good see all details here CommonGood

"Whether it is plans to develop Glasgow's Botanic Gardens or Edinburgh's controversial blueprints for Caltongate, there are persistent claims that councils are disregarding the safeguards surrounding common good assets."

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Common-good-a-concern-for.3606853.jp

Old land law may thwart nightclub in the Botanics

Article in THE HERALD Tuesday 20th November 2007 By Gerry Braiden Trusts established by Robert the Bruce and confusion over issues of land ownership could thwart plans for a bar and nightclub within Glasgow's Botanic Gardens.Glasgow City Council now believes parts of the plot designated for the controversial scheme fall within "common good land", while other subterranean sections may not be the authority's to give away.Senior figures within the authority have told The Herald that even if the developer does not throw in the towel, resolution of the issues could delay it by at least two years.A threat of legal action by campaigners against the project could hold that timescale up further still.The council has now also confirmed in writing to leisure chain G1 Group, the firm behind the proposals, that a 99-year lease is no longer an option and that profit-sharing must be on the table. The letter was due to arrive with G1's head Stefan King yesterday.The latest developments follow a campaign of some internal Labour pressure from MPs and MSPs on the ruling council administration to bin the project. Kelvin MSP Pauline McNeill has cajoled party colleague George Ryan, head of development and regeneration at the council, claiming the 99-year lease is "entirely inappropriate" and "makes no financial sense", as well as raising the complex issue of common good land and ownership of the air space in the underground rail tracks.Last night Mr Ryan, who has already issued a "take it or leave it" ultimatum to Mr King over the lease, said that after closer examination council officials informed him they now believed some of the plot was, indeed, common good land.He said: "Officials informed us late last week of the latest developments. The air space under ground isn't ours to give away and parts of the development would fall foul of common good law. If it's all looking too messy and costly there's still the option for G1 to walk away."Ann McKechin, whose Glasgow North Westminster constituency includes the Botanics, said: "This is an opportunity for a major re-think. I've no doubt there's support for an appropriate visitor facility and if the council was to reconsider the proposal in line with residents' views it could get a lot of support."But the current proposal is ill-judged."Introduced by Robert The Bruce, common good law established tracts of land and funds to be held in trust by authorities for the good of the people. Save Our Botanics campaigners have argued from day one that they believed a 19th-century act of parliament ensured that the Botanic Gardens, while looked after by city authorities, should be retained entirely as a botanic garden.Although local authorities across Scotland generally have a single common good pot, Glasgow's is notoriously complex and fragmented and it may well have taken several months to establish the exact status of the particular area within the Botanics. 

QUESTION NO 15

By Councillor Burgess

SEVEN centuries ago, King Robert the Bruce laid the foundations for  Aberdeen's Common Good fund when he issued a Royal Charter, granting the  city fathers the rights to one of his favourite hunting grounds.
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1746562007

Letter in The Herald Monday 29th October 2007  

  The Communities’ Inheritance

There is a welcome flurry of activity behind the scenes about the Scottish communities' inheritance - all common good assets, heritable and moveable and their asset management - possibly thanks to the research of Andy Wightman and James Perman, followed by petititions 875, 896, 961 to the Scottish Parliament.