"In areas like ours, everything we've ever had we fought for. It wasn't just handed to us," says Anna Hutchison, a community activist and one of the founders of the North Edinburgh Social History Group. For decades, Anna tells the author, the community has had to struggle for the basic amenities others in the city take for granted,…

Local authorities have a strong tradition of supporting communities to help themselves, and this is nowhere better illustrated than in the learning they commission and deliver through the Adult Safeguarded Learning budget. The budget was set up to protect at least a minimum of provision for adult liberal education, family learning and learning for…