Dave Thompson MSP

Dave Thompson, SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch used recent Rural Affairs and Climate Change Committee (RACCE) meetings in the Parliament to raise the issue of getting youngsters interested in gardening and horticulture at an early age and to appropriate funding for charitable organisations, such as Lochaber Rural Education Trust (LRET).

At the first meeting (18 March), Dave highlighted a fantastic unit in his own constituency at Aonach Mòr, which is run by Isabel and Linda Campbell. They take youngsters and school groups out and get them interested in growing vegetables and plants.

At the second meeting, a week later (25 March) he raised the matter again with Aileen McLeod, The Minister for Environment, placing the emphasis on increasing Primary and Secondary schools’ access to green spaces and nature for outdoor learning.

Dave invited the Minister to visit Lochaber Rural Education Trust as a good example of outdoor learning, to which the Minister said she would be more than happy to do. Dave has since written to the Minister to ask that she formally take up that offer.

Mr Thompson said, “The sterling work by Isabel and Linda Campbell and their volunteers at Aonach Mòr is just fantastic because children get the chance to experience gardening and horticulture when they otherwise might not.

“The trouble is that despite our best efforts, the charitable organisation struggles to get funding.

“There is money available under SRDP, I appreciate not as much as some might like, but I would like to see some of that cash diverted down to Lochaber Rural Education Trust and schools to encourage children to grow”.

Dave went on, “It is great that the Minister for the Environment, Aileen McLeod is interested to take up my invitation of visiting Lochaber Rural Education Trust. I look forward to her responding to my letter of invitation and hope she takes up the offer”.

Isabel Campbell MBE of Lochaber Rural Education Trust said,

“Children today do not know where their food comes from and it is extremely necessary to include gardening in the curriculum. Children who have taken part in the Seed to Supper project at Lochaber Rural Education Trust have gone home and shown their parents how to grow their own vegetables. Hundreds of children have taken part in the project over the past 6 years and we need funding to keep it going

Note:

Dave’s comments at RACCE on 18 March, 2015.

“The discussion has been very interesting. We do want to hear you talk, Simon Jones, and the more you talk, the better.

Simon Jones mentioned local action on biodiversity, but what we have been talking about up until now are crofts, farms and estates. We should look at the really local level when we consider how we deal with biodiversity.

If you look at the natural capital asset index graph, you see that back in 1950, one year after I was born, the score was very high and by 2010 it had halved. I would be interested to know whether it has improved since 2010, because that was five years ago; I do not know whether Rob Brooker or anyone else can help us with that.

My second point is perhaps more important. I was born in a house in Moray Street in Lossiemouth that had a bit of ground behind it. That had been planned by the burghers of Elgin when they built that new part of Lossiemouth. The piece of land was 60 feet wide and 180 feet back to the next street. Every house in that area had a piece of land that was exactly the same. That was put in place quite deliberately, to allow people to grow their own food, keep chickens and all the rest of it.

Our garden was full. My father was a baker, and he would start work at 3 in the morning, come home at midday, when he would have a wee snooze, and then he would go out to work his garden in the afternoon and evening. He grew lots of stuff, as did many of our neighbours.

That would have added considerably to the high natural capital value in 1950, because lots of people were doing that, not just farmers, crofters and estate owners. We need to get back to having that kind of effect again. The way to do it, which I would value comment on, is to get youngsters interested in gardening and horticulture at an early age.

That is a real problem at the moment. There is a fantastic little unit out at Aonach Mòr, the Lochaber Rural Education Trust, which is run by Isobel and Linda Campbell. They take youngsters and school groups out and get them interested in growing things and animals and so on. That charitable organisation struggles to get any kind of funding. We have been trying to help, but we just cannot source any funding. If they cannot get funding, they will have to close down. There is lots of money out there under the SRDP. Maybe it is not as much as everyone would like and there are big cuts, but why are we not diverting some of the funds down to the Lochaber Rural Education Trust and to schools that encourage youngsters to grow? If we can get people back to growing their own, even if it is only a hobby to get a better quality of vegetables, we would have a massive army of people across the country, and they would add to our natural capital asset”.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=9865

Dave’s comments at Committee on 25 March, 2015.

Dave Thompson (Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch) (SNP):

Last week I picked up on a point about education. In big step 3 and priority project 6, on taking learning outdoors, the aim is to increase secondary and primary schools’ access to green spaces and nature for outdoor learning. There is a good example of an outdoor learning venture in my constituency—Lochaber Rural Education Trust, which is run by Isabel and Linda Campbell, whom I first met a number of years ago. We have been helping them to get funding to keep that fantastic little project on the road, but we have had great difficulty. When the previous First Minister was with the Cabinet in Lochaber, he went along to have a look at it and thought that it was fantastic, but there is no funding for it.

We have something that is working really well and is giving schoolchildren the chance to learn a lot of useful things about the environment, animals and growing things, but we cannot seem to find a regular source of funding to keep it going. It is run by volunteers, in the main. There are also problems with the schools running out of funds for buses to take their children there. In a constituency like mine, people have massive distances to travel and they need to travel to such projects because they cannot be in every single place.

What cross-departmental work is being done to ensure that there are proper funding streams for excellent projects such as that one? It has made a few successful short-term funding proposals, but if it does not get proper funding soon, it will close. Where does it leave us if we do not have a separate, identifiable funding stream that such folk can bid into?

Aileen McLeod:

I agree about some of the fantastic projects that exist for our schools. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet some of our local biodiversity action plan officers and hear about a north-east Scotland camera trap project, which is absolutely fantastic. It was set up to gather information on some of the more secretive mammal species that live in our woodlands across the north-east. To be honest, it captured me because there were thousands of videos and images that revealed the movement of a range of species, including our wood mice, red squirrels, badgers, otters and pine martens. That has all been done with the help of local volunteers and through our schools and Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Moray Council. The project received LEADER funding and funding from the Forestry Commission Scotland to work with a number of schools.

Officials may want to comment.

Professor Thompson:

I will add two things to the wonderful example that the minister gave. A huge amount is being done through the curriculum to improve awareness educationally. We are also doing a lot of work with Young Scot to promote the wider links between education and appreciating and caring for nature.

There are a lot of examples across the board.

Dave Thompson:

That is all great; it is fantastic and it is good to hear it. However, when the previous First Minister visited the project that I described about four years ago, he mentioned LEADER and nothing came of it. The project has struggled on ever since. It is a great project. Funding streams such as LEADER do not seem to be working effectively.

Why have a priority project 6 to“Increase Secondary and Primary schools’ access”when we already have people volunteering and running projects that need a relatively small amount of regular income? Why not help them? They are already doing valuable work. If we lose that, we will go backwards, not forwards. Although there are things happening in the schools and other things going on, why are we not considering supporting such work?

I invite the minister and her officials to come up to see that little project—I would be more than happy for them to do that and I am sure that the people at the project would be really pleased to see them—so that they can assess for themselves its value. It is in a very rural area. It is just below the ski slopes at Aonoch Mor, so the minister could go up in the gondolas when she comes out, which would also be an interesting experience. That project is working but is in danger of folding. The minister should identify some kind of funding stream that such projects can deal with. It is about thinking across departments.

Aileen McLeod:

I would be more than happy to accept Dave Thompson’s invitation to go and see the project. I would also be more than happy for him to write to me about that case setting out all the details. That would be helpful for us and we will look to see how we can take the matter forward.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=9880