What success looks like

Sometimes civil servants ask Ministers when discussing a policy initiative "What do you think success will look like ?"

This is what success looks like for a petition to the Scottish Parliament's Petitions Committee which was today in Argyll reviewing three local petitions, all of which I have been involved with in some way or another.

One of them was about the "Tinker's Heart" which I have blipped twice before.   The first time I was just getting involved with  the inspirational Jess Smith who was keen to achieve some sort of recognition for the Heart.   Like most campaigns , it started off with confidence but little real knowledge of the obstacles ahead.  

By the time of the second blip Jess and I and many others were beginning to realise that the real target should be scheduling by Historic Scotland as there is no other monument or commemoration built by travellers themselves.  However achieving scheduling was a long and tortuous process exacerbated by an initial determined refusal by HS.   None the less  after the submission of a petition to the Parliament , the summoning of HS to appear before the committee along with the Minister ,  and a lot of arguing and campaigning scheduling  was finally  accepted and took effect last month.

The site still needs a lot of work done.   The travellers have formed a trust and hope to secure much safer  access, much better signage and much more appropriate presentation and protection of the Heart itself.

But today the Petitions Committee visited and heard from Jess a heartfelt message of thanks for their work in helping to get to this stage.   My extra photo is of Jess and her husband Davie with the committee but the main blip is Jess herself, with Loch Fyne in the background on a rare beautiful late summer's day, when we all saw what success (at least partial) can look like.