Small clump of frog spawn in ditch pool in Five Mile Wood 14 March 2023
Word(s) of the Month
COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING (CWB for short) underpins much of the Scottish Government’s thinking about how the Scottish economy and environment can be improved. It is built upon 5 pillars…
Spending: Procure & Commission goods & services locally, developing good enterprises; fair work and shorter supply chains.
Workforce: Increasing fair work & developing local labour markets that support the wellbeing of communities.
Land and Property: Growing social, ecological, financial and economic value that local communities gain from land and property assets.
Inclusive ownership: Develop more local and social enterprises which generate community wealth, including social enterprises, employee-owned firms and cooperatives.
Finance: Ensuring that flows of investment and financial institutions work for local people, communities and businesses.
Projects building on these pillars are currently underway on a regional and city region basis throughout Scotland, and it is our belief that the WSWG project accords fully with this framework, for which reason the WSWG board is working hard to consolidate the support it deserves.
So, what news?
We have now received our preliminary feedback from the CATS site visit on 26 January and Panel meeting on 3 February from which will follow in depth discussions on various aspects of the WSWG Proposal in the near future.
We are also networking with a view to expanding our Wildwood Steering Group to bring on new skills and increased capacity for the project going forward. Let us know if you think you can bring some valuable expertise to this group. We are particularly keen to find people who can help organise community events, develop our social media presence and work with the trustees on progressing our fundraising strategy.
Given the potential scale of community wealth building from the WSWG Proposal and West Stormont Connect, we are also working hard to secure solid political support for our project in its wider context.
What’s coming up next?
- Earth Hour Saturday 25 March, 8.30pm – please take part for the planet if you can. www.wwf.org.uk/earth-hour
- C406 Tackle Litter Group community litter-pick, Sunday 26 March, road closed 1-4pm. WSWG volunteers wanted to help clean up Taymount Wood entrance and nearby road verges. Email us as contact@weststormontwoodlandgroup.scot for details if you’d like to help.
- Wildflower and Mining Bee Rescue Mission: volunteers needed for urgent gorse mulch clearance in Taymount & Five Mile Woods: 29th, 31st March; 2nd, 4th & 6th April. 10.30am–3pm. There is a huge amount of material blanketing the ground layer, risking suppressing the delicate and valuable wildflowers we have along all our forest tracks and smothering the tunnels in which mining bees overwinter so we are looking for many hands to make lighter work raking and brushing it around to relieve some of the problem before the wildflowers start growing and the bees start emerging. There are also gorse and birch stumps and other debris trip hazards which we would like to cut back, as well as clearing some of the debris from the ditchlines. We are not sure how much of it can be done by volunteers but we would like to have a go to see how much positive impact we can have to rescue the wildflowers and bees. We will be putting up more details on our events page with information as to how to get involved and will send out a link to all on our mailing list in the next few days. Please do help in this important mitigation work if you can.
- WSWG stall at Perth and Kinross Climate Action Earth Day Market Perth Civic Hall, 22 April
