…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
The Whin Park controversy (see previous post) is merely the latest of a number of controversies brewing across Scotland in relation to common good land. In Perth, the Council is proposing to demolish the Perth City Hall. Amidst all the
Continue readingHighland Council are proposing to build a new road – the West Link [broken link Oct 2024]- to provide a southern bypass for Inverness and allow traffic travelling from the A82 to the A9 and vice-versa to avoid the town
Continue readingOne hundred years ago, the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911 was passed by the Liberal Government of Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith. It was a bold and radical reform designed to allow families to obtain landholdings
Continue readingA dramatic fire has been raging all afternoon at the Gusset building at 120-130 Morrison Street, Glasgow. The property has lain derelict since it was bought for £4,200,000 by Straben Developments Limited of Belfast, Northern Ireland in September 2007. (title
Continue readingLink to a post I wrote for Bellacaledonia on whether independence will make any difference to the land question in Scotland. Available as a pdf here
Continue readingIn the rapidly expanding digital world, it is encouraging to welcome an outbreak of online participation among our elected representatives. Not only do many MPs and MSPs have blogs, twitter accounts and facebook pages but some of them are even
Continue readingThis blog was first published at Bella Caledonia [link broken Oct 2024] on 29 September 2011 UPDATE 25 November 2012 Read the Jimmy Reid Foundation’s excellent report Silent Crisis: Failure and Revival in Local Democracy in Scotland for a detailed
Continue readingThe Scottish Government today announced a further three projects that will be developed using the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) model. This is a mechanism whereby future non-domestic rates (business rates) that arise as a consequence of the TIF financed development
Continue readingToday, an organisation called Greenspace Scotland launched what they claim is a world first in mapping the location, extent and type of greenspace across all of Scotland’s urban settlements. [broken link Oct 2024]“No other country has mapped its greenspace in
Continue readingThe Scotland Bill is now being considered by the House of Lords. As regular readers will be aware, I have been taking a close interest in the particular issue of the proposed changes in the administration of the Crown Estate
Continue reading