Rural Development Council
Remit of Council
The Rural Development Council will consider how best rural Scotland can contribute to the creation of a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth.
It will identify obstacles to achieving this goal; consider possible solutions; and offer advice to Scottish Ministers, including advising on priorities for action.
The Council shall also consider and advise on priority issues remitted to it by Scottish Ministers.
Current Committee Members
Dame Barbara Kelly
Barbara Kelly is a partner in a farming enterprise near Dumfries, where she has lived and worked all her life. Over many years she has been actively involved in issues relating to rural communities, their sustainable development and relationship to the land. A past Chairman of the Scottish Consumer Council, a past Main Board Member of SNH and of Scottish Enterprise she has worked to ensure that the rural voice is heard at national level. A founder of Rural Forum, and of the Southern Uplands Partnership, she oversaw the delivery of the successful £30 million Millennium Forest for Scotland project. A member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Foot and Mouth Inquiry in 2002, she is presently part of the RSE team looking at the future of Scotland's Uplands and Islands. She recently chaired the Advisory Group for the publication of the SCC Report on Rural Advocacy and was a member of the Scottish Government Advisory Committee which produced the 2007 Report 'Rural Scotland: Better Still, Naturally'.
Dr Kate Braithwaite
Kate Braithwaite is Director of Carnegie UK Trust Rural Programme, which operates across the UK and Ireland. The Rural Programme is building upon the findings of the Commission for Rural Community Development and also involves a progressive Rural Action Research Programme. Previously Chief Executive of Voluntary Action Cumbria, Kate and her staff pioneered many programmes involving social enterprise, women's networks and adding value to local produce. Kate was awarded the MBE in the Millennium Honours for services to Rural Communities and the Environment and she studied for her PhD at Newcastle University, Centre for Rural Economy.
Stuart Housden
Stuart Housden is the Director of RSPB Scotland and sits on the UK management Board of the charity. He is responsible for policy and operations in Scotland. The RSPB manages an estate of some 65,000Ha at over 70 locations in Scotland, which is farmed either in hand, or in collaboration with numerous graziers and crofting partners; the estate also has extensive areas of native woodland and welcomes over 400,000 visitors each year. Stuart is a member of the Scottish Power Environmental Advisory Forum, and has produced numerous articles and policy papers on land use and conservation matters. He is also a member of the Scottish Biodiversity Group. He was a member of the Agriculture Strategy Implementation Group ASIG. He was awarded an OBE for services to nature conservation and the conservation of biodiversity in 2004. He lives in Edinburgh.
Jim McLaren
Married with two sons, two daughters and two step-daughters, Jim is a mixed arable and dairy farmer, with 130 Holstein Friesian cows. His arable unit, growing winter wheat, winter oilseed rape, spring barley and land let out annually for potatoes, extends to 1000 acres over four units near Crieff in Perthshire. He has other interests outside of mainstream farming, including a share in a retail dairy business, for which his cows provide around half the milk, and an auction business in Crieff, at which Jim regularly acts as auctioneer. Jim served as NFU Scotland Vice-President for the year 2006/2007 and on 23 February 2007 Jim was elected President of NFU Scotland.
Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan has lived and worked in rural Caithness for over twenty years. A Board Member of VisitScotland she has also served as Chairman of Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise and is a member of the Convention of the Highlands and Islands. She has worked on the Board of Scottish Museums Council and as Chair of the North Highland Economic Forum. Her past commitments also include chairing local Leader II and Community Economic Development groups. She has a particular interest in sustainable tourism and the development of new tourism product.
John Bryden
John Bryden is the Director of the UHI PolicyWeb, Inverness. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen, where he formerly held the Chair of Human Geography, and co-directed the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research. John has been an advisor on rural policy to the OECD, the EU, and the World Bank. He was the External Advisor to the Scottish Office Land Reform Policy Group from 1997 to 1999, and one of the external advisors on the Inter-Departmental Group on Rural Strategy at the same time. He has coordinated six EU-funded trans-national research projects on rural development issues, and spoken at all the main EU Rural Development Conferences, giving the main 'academic' keynote address at the Salzburg Rural Development Conference in 2003. He is a Fellow of the Rural Policy Research Institute in the USA, and a member of the International Advisory Council of the Polson Institute for Global Studies at Cornell University, USA. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Guelph, Canada; the University of Missouri-Columbia; and at Cornell University. John is also Chairman of the International Rural Network.
Derek Logie
Derek is Chief Executive of the Rural Housing Service, a post he has held for the past 12 years; leading the organisation's growth from a unit within Rural Forum to an independent charity. The Rural Housing Service works to deliver affordable housing opportunities in rural communities, to help rural communities tackle local housing needs and to highlight the extent and nature of rural housing issues. Derek has worked with communities across Scotland to secure affordable housing for local people, facilitating developments in Gigha, Colonsay, Laggan and Whitsome amongst others. Derek has strong connections with rural communities from Fair Isle in the North to Newcastleton in the South. He is the author of a number of reports on rural housing, including most recently research for the Scottish Crofting Foundation on the use of croft land for affordable housing provision. He has spoken at national and international conferences on rural housing in Scotland.
John Ferguson
John Ferguson is the Director of Development and Programmes with Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). His 30 year career has involved a range of posts in both local authority and voluntary sector organisations. This includes special residential schools and secure units for troubled young people, services for abused young women and community based family services. As a volunteer, he has founded and chaired several charities and is currently delivering humanitarian relief in Afghanistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. He has worked in the United States, Russia and China promoting voluntary sector service deliveries. In SCVO he is responsible for the teams promoting Equalities and Human Rights, Employment Training, Social Economy, Rural Services and European Structural Funds.
Donald Macrae
Donald J R MacRae is strategy and finance director of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc. He joined the then TSB Bank Scotland plc in 1986 and assumed responsibility for monitoring the Scottish economy. Research into the characteristics of high growth Scottish businesses and entrepreneurship was used in the Scottish Enterprise business birth rate inquiry in the early 90s. As a result, Donald founded the Business Forum - the networking organisation devoted to promotion and development of new Scottish businesses. Donald was a member of the Scottish Executive Purchasers Information Advisory Group (PIAG) reforming the selling and purchase of residential property and a member of the Scottish Executive Economic Consultants Statistics Group. He is a member of the Scottish Government Economic Statistics Group. Donald was appointed to the Board of Scottish Homes in 2002 and to the Board of Scottish Enterprise in 2004. He is a trustee of the David Hume Institute and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Donald has recently given evidence to several Scottish Parliamentary Committees, advised the Finance committee of the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Budget and holds the chair of visiting professor of business and economic development at the University of Abertay, Dundee. He was a member of the 2007/08 Committee of Inquiry on Crofting.
James McLellan
James McLellan is from Argyll and was educated at Keil School, Dumbarton, graduating with a LLB fromGlasgow University in 1972. He has served in Argyll County Council, Argyll and Bute District Council and Argyll and Bute Council, having Chief Executive of the latter for the last 13 years. He has particular experience of the challenges of service delivery to remote rural and island communities, and of the challenges in sustaining the communities. Outside of work his interests include fishing, walking, gardening and running a small flock of ewes. He is a Reader in the Church of Scotland and is married with three children.
Gillian Slider
Gillian Slider is 18 and was born and brought up in Ullapool in the North West Highlands of Scotland. Being sixth generation Ullapool she is well aware of what it is like to grow up and live rurally. Gillian works full time as the Youth Convener in the Highland Council and is also a Director of the Scottish Youth Parliament as the convener of the Transport, Environment and Rural Affairs committee. She is Scotland's representative on the steering group of the CIVICUS Youth Assembly and also represents Scotland in the UK Youth Parliament and the World Youth Congress. Her most recent achievement was being selected to be the UK Youth Ambassador for the World Economic Forum for the Middle East. She is heavily involved in Youth organisations and projects locally, nationally and internationally and has accumulated a vast amount of expertise for her young age.
Neil Macleod
Neil Macleod has been the Chair of the Scottish Crofting Foundation since February 2008, having been previously Vice Chair for two years and is also a board member for Scottish Sheep Strategy. Neil is also Board Member of the QMS TAC Committee, Lewis Crofters Ltd, Agricultural Merchants and is a director of Long Island Auction Mart and Co. Chomunn na Pairc. He recently retired as Chair of Lewis and Harris Sheep Producers Association.
Alison Hay
Cllr Alison Hay is the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) Spokesperson on Regeneration and Sustainable Development. She is a member of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Group on Argyll and Bute Council and was Leader of the Council itself from 1999 to 2001. She is a founder and Board member of GRAB (Group for Recycling in Argyll and Bute), a SEPA North Regional Board member, a Director of the Scottish Low Pay Unit, and chairs the boards of Auchindrain and Kilmartin Museums.
Minutes of meeting