HIGHLIGHTS OF 2023
Our new name, logo and website increased visibility and we were quoted in over 250 media articles.
The updated website was used by over five thousand users and has become a hub for information and guidance.
Over 300 people registered to view our winter webinar series.
After unprecedented effort on the deposit return campaign, we started campaigning on the Circular Economy Bill in September, giving evidence at a Parliamentary committee.
Our director started a fundraising walk around Glasgow’s Green Belts in order to raise awareness of our work on green belts and their importance.
Report on APRS’s Work in 2023
This year we have concentrated our limited resources on three projects – the National Parks Strategy Project, Deposit Return and Green Belts. At the same time, we expanded our reach into advocacy on the Circular Economy, delivered new work on engaging people in planning, and also made big changes on our communications and supporter work.
Deposit Return and the Circular Economy
The first half of the year we were intensively working on the deposit return scheme with all hands to the pump. A concerted media and political campaign against deposit return had gathered pace just ahead of implementation and we had to make the case to keep it on track.
Our network of litter pickers and groups were fantastic advocates, delivering our ‘message on a bottle’ campaign to their local MSPs as well as collecting data and interacting on social media.
Our media work on deposit return gathered traction with at least 30 separate media releases/media pushes, resulting in APRS being quoted in at least 250 newspaper/website articles, 5 radio appearances (including the Today Programme) and 2 TV appearances between January and June – including an article written by Kat in the Guardian which received over 350 comments.
We continued making the case to Ministers in meetings and also in open letters, signed by other NGOs, both to the First Minister and the Prime Minister as well as an email campaign to MSPs from supporters. However we were extremely disappointed, after our eight-year campaign, when the deposit return scheme was pushed back for a third time to March 2024 and then delayed until a UK-wide scheme goes ahead. An in- depth analysis of what happened to the deposit return scheme can be read on our website. Part of the reason for the delay to deposit return was that the UK Government only issued a partial exemption to the Internal Markets Act, which excluded glass from the scheme.
Following this, APRS led on a letter to the Prime Minister, signed by devolved and UK-wide environmental NGOS, calling for changes to the IMA. This letter has led to planned meetings with Labour shadow secretaries of state for Scotland and Wales, and two Scottish Government Cabinet secretaries.
Scottish Environment LINK will take forward the campaign from this point with the LINKs in the other UK nations.
With the Circular Economy Bill entering the committee stage in the autumn, the deposit return team threw themselves into this timely opportunity with the key aim of strengthening the bill by including refillable/reuse targets and also obligations on producers to take back certain products. We gave oral evidence and additional written evidence to the Parliament.
Other news and activity
Historic Environment Scotland has agreed to take the APRS archive. We plan to digitise the archive and put it on our website. Nina has undertaken oral history training so that we can start to gather stories from our members.
In addition to our core campaigns, we have also continued to be an extremely active member of LINK, participating in three working groups, and supporting joint campaigns and actions. We have also contributed to policy work on Energy and the Just Transition and Human Rights (making the case for the right to a healthy environment), and supported JMT/Mountaineering Scotland, who are challenging the roll-out of blanket phone infrastructure even in locations with absolutely no settlements or roads.
After many years of very low membership recruitment (single figures per year), we needed to raise awareness of who APRS are, and start to engage a new audience. We are building a supporter base through social media and the email list, which we hope to translate into memberships or financial supporters.
Scottish National Parks Strategy Project
With the Scottish Government committing to creating at least one new National Park by 2026, this year has been full of consultations and policy work relating to the delivery of this commitment. Our joint project on National Parks with the Scottish Campaign for National Parks (SCNP), has focussed on the nominations process for the new National Park(s) and the Government’s plans to review the purposes of a National Park.
We were delighted at the considerable interest shown by communities in the nominations process and we have assisted groups who have come to us for advice on applying. This high level of engagement has been a useful lever to help us advocate for additional support to communities in the process, and afterwards, in providing ongoing support for those communities in delivering their aims. We hope that the scale of interest will persuade Ministers that they need to plan a programme of designating a series of National Parks in Scotland.
Communications & Partnership
This year we have been improving and updating the way we communicate with audiences. Changing the name of the organisation to Action to Protect Rural Scotland and creating a modernised logo with the words ‘Scotland’s Countryside Charity’ has helped general understanding of who we are and what we do.
Our new website went live in March with a searchable resources database and regular news items which drove increases, year on year, across all metrics. We have increased our ability to communicate with non-members through increased social media presence and a non-member email list.
Our new audience analysis and fundraising strategy is informing how we grow our audiences and bring in more donations. We still produce our printed newsletter twice a year. Our media work extended well beyond deposit return/circular economy with APRS quoted or interviewed in media on National Parks, Local Development Plans, fly-tipping, building of new drive-throughs, Green Belts, wildfires and better buses for rural areas.
To bring interested audiences along to the next stage of engagement, we launched ‘Love your Countryside’ – an easy access campaign to encourage people to get involved in protecting their countryside and to learn about planning/local development planning.
We launched in November, but plan to do a much bigger push on the project in the spring when people are thinking about getting outdoors a bit more.
Members & Volunteers
APRS relies heavily on the generosity, financial or otherwise, of its members, supporters and volunteers. The charity is very grateful for all the help it receives.
Thank you to all our members and volunteers who make possible all the work described in this Review. Please pass this Review on to anyone you think might be interested in becoming a member, to help us make 2024 an even better year for Scotland’s rural landscapes.
Green Belts & Planning
The start of the year saw the adoption of the new National Planning Framework 4, which, thanks to APRS policy work, has markedly improved protections for Green Belts. We are also hopeful that the central purpose of climate and nature and the potential for more involvement of communities could prove transformative. However, we believe that there is a huge need to help communities to engage upfront in the creation of local development plans. With this in mind, we have developed a new area of our website with information, guidance and a timeline for communities wanting to have an influence on their local development plans. We are also advocating for more community voice in local development plans and continuing to advocate for third-party right of appeal.
We revamped our guidance on Planning and Green Belts and launched a winter webinar series in collaboration with Planning Democracy. We presented two at the end of 2023, with a further four planned in 2024.
We continued our support of the Green Belts Alliance, offering advice and support to over 30 communities as well as regular e-newsletters. We also responded to an increasing demand in general planning enquiries from the public.
In the summer our Director, Kat, started her Green Belts Walk – circumnavigating the Green Belt of Greater Glasgow in her weekends and days off to learn about Green Belts, meet campaigners and fundraise. Her blogs document the experience and the various issues around Green Belts and have led to a front-page feature in the Herald magazine and on Out of Doors.
Acknowledgements
Thanks and acknowledgement for our achievements this year need to go to the dedicated, hardworking and extremely effective team at APRS in 2023: Nina Sobeka, our administrator, Nikki Sinclair on National Parks, Green Belts and planning, Jo McFarlane on education, communities and stakeholder engagement, Sarah Doherty on policy and campaigns, Barry Snedden on digital media, and James Mackenzie on public affairs and media. We also thank our funders and supporters without whom none of this would be possible. As a very tiny charity we rely heavily on a few funders who are extremely important to us.
Kat Jones Director APRS
Plans for 2024
We will grow the Green Belts Alliance, creating more online guidance and resources, delivering more training, and support.
We will see the Circular Economy Bill through parliament, advocating for reuse and take-back to drive transformation of waste systems.
2024 is a key year for the campaign for a new National Park and we will keep the positive case in the media and public attention as well as advocating to decision makers.
We will create a new section of our website on our history, including uploading some key documents from our archive and oral histories.
We will start key collaborations with university courses in planning and landscape architecture.
We will focus on driving more memberships and regular donors.
Membership and Staff Update
Membership
The total current APRS membership stands at 340.
This year we have had 15 new members, compared to an average of 6 over the previous 8 years.
Employees
In 2023 APRS employed 6 part-time members of staff: Director – 25 hours per week
Administrator – 21 hours per week
Green Belts Alliance Manager – 7 hours per week
Public Engagement and Education Manager – 21 hours per week Campaign Manager – 21 hours per week
Social Media and Events Officer – 28 hours per week
President: Patricia Macdonald BSc PhD FRSE FSA(Scot) FRSA HonFRSGS HonFICS Chairman: John Thomson MA MSc FRSA
Director: Dr Kat Jones