Update from Simon Ross-Gill

“Hello, everyone,

Thanks again to all of those who made it to the meeting last Thursday, I found it very useful with a lot of good ideas shared.

We are going to reschedule the next meeting to the second week in August. I will be in touch separately in the next few days to confirm the details.

I first of all wanted to reiterate the offer from Louise of a collective space in Brodick that could be shared by the organisations represented in this group. This is at No1 Auchrannie Road and there are photos attached.

In the same spirit, the other (digital) asset that we have, is the Arran Green Map, which I first designed in 2019. I’d like to offer this to the group as another way of promoting all of the work that we are doing collectively.

We hope that both these resources can help us to consolidate and promote the work that we are all doing.

Here is a bullet summary of the discussion at the meeting on 06/07/2023. I’ve also set up a google drive and access details are below the summary.

• Perhaps not surprisingly we spent most of the time talking about food and food production on the island, this discussion was born from looking at the 5 priorities for the NAC as it was noted straight away that food production wasn’t given too much of a mention.
• We agreed that food production is interwoven throughout the 5 priorities (Climate Action & Sustainability, Natural Capital, Energy Provision and Energy Costs, Marine Planning & Planning Policy, Active Travel)
• We had a very productive conversation about what our future aspirations for Arran’s landscape could look like if it was fully productive with food, in a way that is also beneficial for the environment and wildlife, as well as for ourselves as we generate more diverse natural spaces that we can enjoy.
• We talked about mapping land use to population and designing production that would provide for Arran’s population, scaling production to current needs.
• We talked about referring to food production in the past, when there was more diverse production, and more space was used more efficiently for local food production and comparing this to today.
• We considered that food production now is mostly cows and sheep, with the majority of this being for meat. We referred to the statistics that have been compiled about farms across Ayrshire (see drive) and agreed it would be useful to have these stats for Arran, and that perhaps the SAC NetZero group may be able to assist with this.
• We talked about the aerial photographs that were taken in 1946 showing Arran when it was highly productive in food (after the islands dig for victory effort for the second world war) these will be uploaded to the shared drive.
• We talked about the history of small-scale farming for sustenance and subsistence, that this was a part of the social fabric of rural areas like Arran, including networks of exchange with neighbours, and also trading through markets like the Brodick fair or market crosses.
• We talked about the solution already being there – people are already doing the work required to have more local and diverse food production, and that resources should go towards documenting what is already being done and scaling up these practices.
• It was suggested that we could document work already being done with rich content, using this as a baseline to be built upon, and noted existing groups such as Arran’s Food Journey.
• We also discussed that the sustainability of our community is at risk due to lack od cohesion and that the work of our group and the other strands can be the glue that holds things together.
• We once again mentioned the importance of referring to work already done, which can be ignored “at our peril”, including the Arran Recovery Group in 2021, and the Green Islands Plans by Eco Savvy. (I also added the scanned HiFar document to the Drive)
• It was noted that the Scottish Government’s National Improvements Framework does not make the link between food and health: and more generally there is a gap in knowledge of the link between food and health.
• We mentioned the importance of networking with our neighbours, such as through the North Ayrshire food forum.
• We talked about the importance of making green spaces accessible to all ages/physical abilities and people with disabilities should not be left out.
• We talked about the importance of engaging with young people and referred to examples of work being done in this area:

• • Fuel Change
  • Young Islanders Network
  • Climate Change Youth Festival
  • HIE Climate Hub
• We talked about the importance of offering young people apprenticeships and work opportunities.

I hope that covered everything but I am aware it was a very nuanced discussion so I may not have represented all viewpoints and ideas, so please get back to me if you want to include any additional points or raise these at the next meeting.

Google Drive

I have set up the following google drive folder as we discussed, to collect the different resources and documents that we have referred to. The link is below:

Environment Strand – “Arran in Balance”  (Google Drive)

Please note- I have decided to use the title “Arran in Balance” as a working titles for this group and this is open to discussion,

Thanks to everyone who shared documents, just drop me an email if there is anything else that could be included, or you can add files directly in the “drop files in here” folder. The folder also included the updated terms of reference and will keep adding to this as we go.

That’s all for now, I will be in touch regarding the next meeting, and hope you all have a great weekend.