Seòmar agus comataidhean

I think that Ian Welsh also wants to answer that question. Ian, I hope that we can hear you.

Yes.

I thank you both for those contributions; they were really helpful.

I want to pick up on funding. I am interested to hear whether community growing projects and allotments associations have access to grants and other forms of funding. We want to know who the big funders are—perhaps so that we can apply for funding ourselves—and what role the Scottish Government has in that funding. That question is for Karen Birch first, after which I will see who else wants to pick it up.

In a way, your group is what Ian Welsh was referring to when he talked about groups of people coming together to do the community empowerment work. I can see that, even so, you have still had to jump over a lot of hurdles in the years that you have been working on the issue.

Rosanne—do you want to say anything about the funding for your project?

Good morning, and welcome to the 19th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I ask members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

The first item on our agenda is consideration of a decision on taking in private items 3 and 4. Are we agreed to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

It is interesting to hear that there was a desire to allow councils eight years to give them time to prepare. In the meantime, we have had things such as Covid, which have resulted in an upsurge in interest and even more desire for people to get a patch for growing food.

Rosanne, what is your experience in Tranent? Is it similar or are other things going on there?

Thank you. You made a good point about getting people together so that they can empower themselves.

Thanks, Ian. I really love your contributions. I love what you said earlier about the importance of allotments being about the relationship between the people of Scotland and the land of Scotland—not just the land but working the land. I think that there is some truth in that, and we are aware of that in the committee.

I will bring in Willie Coffey, who joins us online.

We will move on to questions on the local food growing strategies from Paul McLennan.

I do not know whether you can hear me, Ian. We just lost the tail end of your audio—we cannot hear you.

There was a new bit for me in what you gave us—there might not be more allotments, but the way in which they are used has improved in that one place that you talked about.