Our Letter to Minister for Culture on Community Space
We wrote to The Scottish Government’s Minister for Culture, Jenny Gilruth MSP, to share the learning from a meeting we held on Tuesday 9th November. The meeting was open to Culture Counts members and to members of Senscot (Social Enterprise Network) working across the arts, heritage, screen, and creative industries.
The meeting was launched by Culture Counts in response to increased inquiries into problems accessing community space.
Read the letter in full below. To reduce energy consumption, please only download the PDF if you have to.
23rd November 2021
Minister for Culture, Ms Jenny Gilruth
Dear Minister,
Community Space
I’m writing to share the learning from a meeting we held on Tuesday 9th November. The meeting was open to Culture Counts members and to members of Senscot (Social Enterprise Network), working across arts, heritage, screen, and creative industries.
The meeting was launched by Culture Counts in response to increased members’ inquiries into problems accessing community space, to hold workshops, classes, courses, and events.
School Buildings
Prior to Covid-19 many community groups regularly hired rooms within school buildings. Schools have become available only to students and teachers, which is forcing the third sector to hire hotel conference rooms and privately owned sports facilities. This does not work for the small margin budget that community groups must work with, and people are keen to know when schools access will open again.
This issue is particularly difficult for those living in rural areas and in the islands, where the school is often the only space to hire. In recent years schools have been designed and built as community hubs, to encompass the school, the library, the theatre, and the community centre. Community hubs and schools host a huge variety of creative activity; community music and drama rehearsals, professional performances, film screenings and teaching, that is unable to return and provide the vital role that arts play in these communities.
We would appreciate it if you would speak to colleagues in Education to investigate when access may open to communities again. This would support the culture sector to plan work and budgets for 2022.
The issue of school design was raised at the meeting. Workshop leaders are finding that new schools often replace old spaces that were used for creative activity with new multi-use spaces that are not suitable, for example, a large hall whose acoustics are not suitable for orchestral concerts. Would it be possible for local arts professionals to be consulted at the design stage of schools’ design, to ensure that future new spaces are fit for purpose? Could this issue be raised with the Scottish Government Digital Scotland (user-centered-design) team, to advise on how this issue could be prevented in the future?
The MacPhail Centre in Ullapool is an example of a multi-use building that took on-board suggestions from the creative community and included them in the final design. Currently, the school and the library are open in the MacPhail centre though no other use of the building is permitted. This is a building that was designed for the community, not just the school pupils.
Pivoting online was a useful tool when Covid-19 was little understood and many parameters were unknown, however, we do need to get back to working creatively together as soon as possible. The lack of space means that community music organisations are finding it harder to engage with young people out of school. Digital poverty and online fatigue are just two of the factors constraining music learning in the non-formal sector.
Third Sector Buildings
Venues operated by the third sector are in some cases continuing to close due to a potential misunderstanding of Covid-19 rules. This is possibly due to there being national guidance, local guidance, and in some cases in-house building guidance. The scenario becomes complex and as such, some buildings are not operating to their full potential within the rules.
After some discussion, the group felt that the best way forward may be to enable a kind of Covid-19 rules and implementation mentoring support system for those people operating buildings. There have been reports of legal concerns, and anxiety around being sued. Would it be possible to launch a mentoring scheme of this kind? This would enable building managers to double-check their thinking, to ease anxiety about using buildings in various settings.
Community Asset Transfer is working well in some areas, though it is very dependent on volunteers and the demographics of the local community. There is concern that Community Asset Transfer is adopting a ‘take it or lose it’ approach. Community buildings not currently in use or those which are being under-utilised could be an increased target for closure. Could protection for cultural community assets be protected within National Planning Framework Four?
Arm’s Length External Organisations
Many community halls and libraries remain closed or are operating restricted hours. This is adding to the complications and difficulty of operating for community groups, as set out above. We know that local authorities and cultural ALEOs were hit hard during Covid-19, and there is deep concern about the long-term impact of closures and restricted hours. There are many libraries for example that are only open for three hours per day.
A library in Johnstone for example, which recently underwent a £14.5m revamp is only opened three hours per day on Wednesdays and Saturdays, this is compared to Milngavie library which is open ten hours per day; supporting students to have somewhere local to study. Even when libraries are open, the community rooms and activity rooms are remaining closed, while gyms are allowed to open.
We note the recent funding announcement for libraries, though remain concerned about the immediate and the long-term investment into local infrastructure. Even before Covid-19, the rising cost of local authority-managed community space was a growing issue. National culture funding has not risen in line with inflation for over a decade, and as such the difference between hire costs and the costs that community groups can afford is vast.
Sustainability
The current situation of community groups hiring hotel conference rooms and private sports facilities is not sustainable. We understand that Covid-19 has been tough on everyone, though we must ensure that we build back better. There is a danger now that overlooking sustainability is becoming the norm.
We would appreciate it if you could investigate the above issues. If it would be useful to meet the group to discuss any issues further, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
Jennifer Hunter
Director, Culture Counts
On behalf of Culture Counts members and Senscot stakeholders
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