Scottish LEADER Staff Group Meeting – 19th/20th September

The latest LEADER Staff Group meeting was held at the National Mining Museum, Newtongrange on 19th/20th September. Despite the arrival of Storm Ali which rattled the vast building on Day 1, the turnout was good, with LAG representatives from all over Scotland, Scottish Rural Network Support Unit staff and members of Scottish Government all attending.

The day was opened by Alan MacDonald, Chair of the Tyne Esk LEADER Local Action Group, followed by a welcome from the Chair of the LEADER staff group, David Tollick. Throughout the day, various groups and sub-groups including CLLD Chairs, Accountable Bodies and SRN were given the opportunity to update on their areas. Martin McManus from Scottish Rural Action also gave a presentation on the series of Brexit workshops they are delivering across the country and encouraged attendees to promote these within their respective areas.

Audrey McLaren of The Cornerstone Project gave a fantastic presentation on the transformation of the Mayfield and Easthouses church into a community hub which she advised was only made possible by the funding provided in the final stages by LEADER.

After a lovely lunch, Nikki Kenn from Forth Valley and Lomond LEADER gave a presentation on her recent trip to Finland and put forward a proposal for a potential, inter-territorial co-operation project relating to foraging. Nikki is looking for partners to work with to further develop the ‘Foraging Fortnight’ and related app.

Despite the somewhat wild weather outside, the group headed out for the two project visits for the evening. The first visit was to The Rocketeer Restaurant in North Berwick where the group received a talk on the rural enterprise project to encase the restaurant in glass and make it a year round attraction/employer.

The second visit took the group to Drift, a nearby farm diversification project where dinner was served from the glorious inside of an upcycled shipping container. Look at that view!

Day two of the staff meeting began with an insightful presentation from Susannah Pate on the Rural Youth Project, outlining the key findings of their recent survey and reporting on the highlights of the Rural Youth Ideas Festival.

After lunch, Hannah from the Scottish Rural Network led a discussion on communications, which introduced the Rural Youth August social media campaign, highlighting the key lessons learned from the experience. LAGs were then given the opportunity to discuss what communication activity was taking place in their region.

The meeting was rounded up by many of the attendees visiting the nearby ‘Track 2 Train’ project in its final stages of development at the Newtongrange train station.

Thanks to hosts, Tyne Esk Leader staff, and LAG members who made it an enjoyable experience and special thanks to those that hosted the project visits at ‘The Rocketeer’, ‘Drift’ and ‘Track 2 Train’ and also to guests Audrey McLaren and Susannah Pate,  who kindly delivered presentations which were both well-received.