Brand New website : http://www.scottishrenaissancetowns.com/

I attended the conference in Glasgow on Thu 25th June to learn more about how Neilston in East Renfrewshire, and a few other towns across the UK and further afield were leveraging the Renaissance Town model to help define a town charter and vision, from which the community could feel a sense of empowerment and more in control of their own destiny.

Quite often we feel (rightly or wrongly) that the local authority seems to be pulling all the strings, and Ren. Towns is one methodology where you can collate community input into developing a new sense of place for a town or region of a city.

Neilston also has a Development Trust which purchased an empty bank and turned it into a community cafe and meeting centre. NDT are also part of the PowerDown Climate community and I was fortunate to meet with their Climate Officer to discuss some of the work they are doing to address climate change.

I have a hard copy of the Neilston Charter if anyone wishes to read it.

Also in attendance was Jim Hay, David Tait, Rona Gold and Johnny Cadell, so Linlithgow had a good presence at the meeting from many different angles.

One thing that concerned me. They did mention what they called 'the elephant in the room' - ie Climate Change, and the Climate Change Bill, but the host/chairman could not remember when the 42% reduction was due !... This is an important message we need to get across. 2020 isn't that far away.

Other links :
http://www.neilstontrust.co.uk/
http://www.renaissancefriends.org.uk/renaissance-towns