Before we can do anything, we need to know who owns the flats in these tenements.
Property ownership is a matter of public record in Scotland. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always make it easy to find the owner.
At the time this project was started, are living in an extraordinary period where unnecessary close physical contact between people is heavily discouraged due to the threat of Covid-19.
That means the traditional method of making contact – knocking on doors, slipping notes or letters through letterboxes and having conversations – has to be our last resort.
We will not allow our determination to make this project happen cause people to become afraid in their own homes.
Therefore, we will seek every possible way of making contact, without making physical contact.
For many, the first word of this project came through a mysterious and unprompted email. It may have come directly from me, or it might have gone through some intermediary. Some of these have been letting agents. Others have been anyone we have been able to find with a meaningful connection to an owner. In some cases, it has been possible to find one owner in a tenement who then has contact details for other owners.
Once all avenues to communciate without physical interaction are exhausted, we will move to the next phase. This will mean getting information to the residents of these properties. That, unfortunately, means some level of physical interaction with the other tenements. Therefore, we will wait until it is acceptably safe to do so.
To minimise contact, this first communication will be a set of posters put up in within the corridor to the common stairwell. These posters will direct residents, whether owner-occupiers or tenants, to get in touch with and join the SECAB project. Mailing lists and social media profiles, pages and groups will be available to join, like or subscribe to. These will be used to broadcast news about the project to all residents.
We will ask residents to contribute what they know about the owners in their tenements, what they may have done before in the back green, and what they want to be able to do there once it has been made pleasant once again.
For many residents, this may be the first time that they have ever learned there is a garden available to them.
With the list of owners in place, we can move to Phase 2 – Making decisions.
SECAB 