Episode 5

full
Published on:

6th Oct 2026

Making walking, cycling, bus and rail travel easier - Brian Farrell

Brian Farrell, chair of Eskbank and Newbattle Community Council, talks with host Osbert Lancaster as they walk in Dalkeith Country Park.

Listen to hear how Brian and other community councillors have worked to make a whole range of improvements to the local area, especially to make cycling and walking easier, and to improve bus and rail services.

Brian talks about:

  • shaping Midlothian’s 10 year active travel strategy
  • new paths, new bus stops and improving bus and rail travel
  • opportunities to increase renewable energy generation on public buildings
  • the challenges for the community and infrastructure from massive housing developments
  • and much more…

Changing Climate, Changing Midlothian explores what the climate and nature emergency means with people living and working in the county. Their reflections will help inform discussions as cross sector representatives and community leaders meet in October to agree a new Single Midlothian Plan setting collective outcomes and actions for the next three years.

Changing Climate, Changing Midlothian is produced for the Midlothian Community Planning Climate Emergency Group by Thrivable Scotland, and is kindly supported by Midlothian Climate Action Hub, Midlothian Community Planning and Midlothian Energy Ltd.

Find out more about:

Thrivable Scotland: helping changemakers engage their colleagues, communities and stakeholders to solve challenges today while building capacity to thrive in an unpredictable future.

Transcript
Brian Farrell:

Hopefully the next two to three years, we'll start to see

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shovels in the ground, and if we can

deliver even half of it, it'll make

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a huge difference to the ability to

walk and cycle across the county.

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But it sometimes feels like you're

in the same conversation over and

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over again and trying to cajole

and basically, push a mountain

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towards another one Uhhuh it does

sometimes feel like, what's the point?

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But as the great Bob Crow, the

trade unionist said, if you fight,

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you won't always win, but if you

never fight, you'll always lose.

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I'm Osbert Lancaster, and this is

Changing Climate, Changing Midlothian,

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where we explore what the climate and

nature emergency means with people

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living and working in the county.

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In this episode, I'm talking with

Brian Farrell, Chair of Eskbank

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and Newbattle Community Council as

we walk in Dalkeith Country Park.

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Brian Farrell: So I was born

and raised in Midlothian.

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I have been involved with our local

community council for six years now.

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Mm-hmm.

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Chair for the last two years.

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And I think, in, in a sort of

local perspective, it's trying

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to make the small things easier.

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So, and the community council been

lobbying for improvements to our

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local bus services As part of a new

footpath along one of the trunk roads.

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We've been lobbying for

that for quite some time.

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But that's also brought four new bus stops

two northbound, two southbound which puts

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about three, 400 houses with a up to 50%

cut in walking time to nearest bus stop.

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Right.

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Osbert : So, so where's this where's your

interest in all of this started from?

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Has it been a sort of climate and

nature sustainability environment

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thing in your life for a long time?

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Or is it just more been like,

getting involved in local staff

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and seeing connections or both?

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Brian Farrell: I think

a combination of both.

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Mm-hmm.

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And, we can all see that

our weather's changing.

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Our winters have become milder and wetter.

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Our summers are getting hotter,

the six hottest years on record

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up in the last six years.

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And so it's a combination of both really.

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I think.

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I think we can all see that,

things are changing and not

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necessarily for the better indeed.

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And for a lot of people, the small

things like making public transport

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easier or giving them better options

to walk and cycle it's all about

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making those, those small changes.

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Osbert : Sometimes it's sort of such an

emphasis on what individuals should do

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to, stop driving, stop doing this, stop

doing that, and forgetting that actually

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a lot of people are really constrained

by the fact there isn't any buses nearby

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them, there are these bigger things that

make doing the right thing unnecessarily

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hard and difficult for people.

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Brian Farrell: Yeah.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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So, a couple of years ago the active

travel strategy for Midlothian

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Council had expired uhhuh and.

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With some new people coming in.

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There was a gap, but the new strategy

is a 10 year strategy and they

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consulted quite widely with community

councils on, what should be in it.

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And the previous one really

was kinda cobbled together.

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It wasn't great.

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A lot of it was focused on, cycle paths or

multi-user paths being delivered through

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housing estates that would be privately

built and so they provided connectivity

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from those estates to main roads.

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But really weren't any use if you wanted

to go from Main Town to Main Town.

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So myself and one of the former

members of the community council,

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we put our heads together.

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We looked at where we sit almost

in the centre of the county

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Osbert : Yeah.

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Brian Farrell: And kinda highlighted

that, these main routes from town centre

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to town centre were what was needed, and

a lot of it, not all of it, but a lot of

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what we suggested went into the strategy.

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There's other bits that have been

picked up in terms of walking route

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that, the footpaths are too narrow.

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And so the council are now looking

separately at what interventions they

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can do there to make walking easier.

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Because for a lot of it, the walking is

as much as the cycling in this county.

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And if you provide safe walking

spaces, people will walk.

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And we've seen that with

this new path down the A7.

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There was a lot of scepticism.

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It's been funded by

developer contributions.

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Osbert : Which path is that?

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Brian Farrell: So it's on the A7 from

Lasswade Road down towards Eskbank

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Road Bonnyrigg Road at the big Tesco.

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Yeah.

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So eventually it'll run from pretty

much Dobbies Garden Centre right

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out to Newtongrange part of it's

developer funded, the other part will

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be funding through Transport Scotland.

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Mm-hmm.

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But in terms of the stretch next to us,

we'd had a hundred houses built just

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off Lasswade Road and Eskbank with,

you know, 15 minute walk to the bus.

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Osbert : Five zero or 15

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Brian Farrell: 1 5, 15 minutes.

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Osbert : Yep.

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Brian Farrell: Which doesn't sound

a lot, but actually if you've gotta

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walk 15 minutes and then, factor

in a five minute wait for the

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bus, that's a lot of extra time.

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I really, if

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Osbert : you're lucky with

getting the time right,

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Brian Farrell: isn't it?

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Yeah.

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And it's fine if it's a daylight today.

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But in the middle of winter.

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And so what a lot of people were doing

was driving to the nearest bus stop.

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But, resident power along with us

lobbying, we got this first stage done.

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So it was completed earlier this year.

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And it's great to see and a relief to see

the bus stops are being well used and more

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and more people are now using the path

since it was finally completed in June.

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I've had a lot of conversations with

the council's strategic transport

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planning manager about, what,

what improvements can we look for?

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There was a, we had a conversation.

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She was telling me that, if we have

things included in the Midlothian

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Local Development Plan related

to rail, then Network Rail are

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more likely to take them forward.

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So because of my background in the railway

she had asked, in general terms what

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might be feasible with the Borders line.

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And so there's a couple of things going

into development plan about supporting

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the additional platforms at Brunstane and

Newcraighall, improving the line speed

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to try and, make the journey shorter.

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Osbert : Yep.

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Brian Farrell: And, with two

platforms, at those two stations,

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it eliminates some of the conflict

with it currently being single line.

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Because the platform's only on one line.

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Osbert : Yes.

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Brian Farrell: Despite there

being two at both stations.

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So, with rail it's a long process to get

from the idea to the actual delivery,

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but with it going into the Development

Plan, it hopefully gives a bit of extra

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impetus to it, 'cause the, the railway

has been a big change and a big success.

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Osbert : Um, All I've seen is ridership

is much higher than expected and so on.

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But, in terms of its impact on

sort of life along the route I don't

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really have any insight into that.

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Brian Farrell: Yeah.

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I mean, it's, so for me it's just

over 15 minute journey from

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Eskbank Bank Station into Waverly.

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Before we got those new bus stops

put in on the A7, the bus journey at

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peak time was taken around an hour.

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Yeah.

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So that's a phenomenal, that's

a phenomenal journey saving.

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Yeah.

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But it's well used at Eskbank, not

only by people from local area who

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walk there, but people up in Bonnyrigg

and Rosewell can drive to it, people

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in Dalkeith, and from some of the more

outlying rural communities, because

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it's the biggest park and ride.

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One of the issues they're having in

the sort of outlying areas is that

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the car parks can quite often be

full at the other stations Uhhuh.

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So, I was giving some suggestions as to

where Midlothian could look to suggest

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additional parking provision to help

more of those rural residents Yeah.

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Being able to link in with railway.

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Basically, if we can make it easier

for people to get the train, more

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people will use the train, a bit

less traffic on the road and if you

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can fill a 200 seat train every half

hour, what's not to like about that?

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It makes the service more sustainable.

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It might mean in the future that

we get more double tracking.

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Maybe at some point we might get a

more frequent service than half hourly.

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But it's kind of chipping away

around the margins I suppose.

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There was a proposal in COVID from

ScotRail to cut the service to hourly.

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Osbert : Right.

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Brian Farrell: And again, with my railway

hat on, I knew full well, if you cut the

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service, you ain't never getting it back.

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Because the resource gets

redeployed elsewhere.

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And suddenly it becomes a huge

stumbling block to go from an hourly

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service to half hourly service.

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Osbert : So then a huge investment and

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Brian Farrell: yeah.

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So, I tried to galvanise the support

of all the Community Councils along

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the route along with the local

councillors to lobby against that

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and we saved the half hourly service.

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Osbert : Mm-hmm.

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Brian Farrell: We did lose the early

morning one that got you into Waverly

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for 5 35, something like that.

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But you know, in the grand scheme of

things, we kept the half hourly service.

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Yeah.

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And boy, do we need it?

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We really do need it.

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And at peak times it's full, and standing

at the weekend, you got a huge number

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of people coming up from the Borders

because, it's not that much of a time

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saving on the journey, but you don't

have to worry about parking or any of

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the other hassle that goes around with

trying to get into the city centre.

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Yeah.

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You're delivered straight

into the centre of town.

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And from the centre of town,

you're delivered straight back to

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the town centre where you got on.

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So, it's been very popular

with with the Borders.

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Osbert : You mentioned a lot about

sort of active travel, sustainable

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travel, is that the main sort of

issues that you're involved with at

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the community council or is there,

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Brian Farrell: I suppose it's kinda the,

it is probably the main one in terms

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of, what's doable for us at our scale.

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We have a couple of members

who are involved with the

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Riverfly and the Esk scheme.

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Both as kind of in the science

side or simply as volunteers.

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Osbert : Yeah.

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So this is monitoring the water

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Brian Farrell: monitoring

water health of river.

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Yeah.

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And in terms of that, we heavily

supported the mine water remediation

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facility that's under construction.

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It's just downstream from us.

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Mm-hmm.

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But huge amount of iron oxide water was

coming from disused mine workings into the

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River Esk, staining everything orange and

having a devastating impact on wildlife.

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Yeah.

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And there's not really a lot of

point in helping things upstream if

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downstream is all, is functionally dead.

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So, that's in build, it should be

functional in the next 12 to 18 months.

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Osbert : Right.

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Brian Farrell: And that'll

make a big difference.

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Osbert : Where is that happening?

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Brian Farrell: So it's in the

Woodburn area, so it's just to

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the south of Dalkeith Town Centre.

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Mm-hmm.

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And it serves the water coming into the

South Esk which is off to our right.

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And the South Esk meets the North

Esk here in Dalkeith Country Park.

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Although, there's evidence of mine water

pollution elsewhere in the North Esk.

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Yep.

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Not on the same extent as what was

coming out of the the flow at Woodburn.

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Osbert : So it, it sounds like you've got

a very healthy active community council.

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Is that the case across

Midlothian to your experience?

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I'm thinking about, areas that

I know of some are very active.

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Others have just disappeared.

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Brian Farrell: It's a difficult one

because, our meetings are monthly.

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We aim to meet seven times a

year, so we don't meet in January.

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We don't meet in July and August.

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Yeah.

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But it does take time to, attend the

meetings, takes time, to pursue things.

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Osbert : Yes, of course.

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Brian Farrell: Which, with

the best will in the world you

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don't always have the time for.

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Our community council, we,

we're hanging in there.

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Yep.

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I think it's fair to say there's one or

two that would quite like to be able to

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step away, but are crucially aware that

if they did, then we'd reach a point

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where we'd struggle to to continue going.

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I think that's broadly similar

in a number of communities.

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The bigger settlements like Bonnyrigg

it's a population of 18, 19,000 and

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they have a capacity of 20 community

councillors, whereas we're currently about

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10 people out of four and a half thousand.

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So there's a difference

in the available pool.

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Yeah.

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And, with people sort of

working age where, both partners

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might be full-time work.

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It does create a drain, but across the

board we're trying to be quite focused

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on just trying to improve our local area.

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Whether it be, things like trying to

get bus stops put in, or bus shelters

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or litter bins and, it sounds very

mundane to be trying to get litter

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bins put in, but the more litter bins

you have, the less littering you have.

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The less rubbish that gets washed

into the river that ends up in the

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Forth, that kills the wildlife.

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Osbert : I'm less familiar with the,

the plastic pollution story, I guess.

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But paths, bus stops, making the

buses easier, faster, and so on.

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That, that has massive effects.

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Yeah.

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Massive improvements in quality

of life reduced air pollution.

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And massive reductions

in carbon emissions.

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Yeah.

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Brian Farrell: I took one of our

prospective candidates for Scottish

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Parliament to task in the election

campaign earlier this year because their

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party was proposing to take 350 million

from the active travel budget across

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Scotland and use it to fill potholes.

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And I took them to his ask and I

said, Midlothian has underperformed

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on active travel for years because

we haven't had a dedicated team.

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We finally have a team, the,

the early stages with a variety

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of schemes in our 10 year plan.

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What you're proposing to do is say,

well actually you can't have any of

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these nice things anymore because we're

gonna use it filling holes in the road.

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And actually potholes aren't

the issue, it's road renewal.

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Mm-hmm.

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And council budgets being cut to the core.

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I made the point it

shouldn't be a zero sum game.

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We should have money to fix the roads

and for improving walking and cycling.

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And a lot of it is walking.

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Up in Bonnyrigg, former railway lines,

they lay empty for years the occasional

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walker with a dog would walk down them.

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And then in the nineties they

were properly surfaced to turn

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them into a network of paths.

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And now they're incredibly well used.

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In fact, they're so well used

that it's now getting to the point

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where there's so many pedestrians,

it's difficult for the cyclists.

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And for a long time, Midlothian

Council kinda, oh, well, we have this

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Penicuik Dalkeith walkway cycle way.

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But you know, it runs to one side

of the town of Bonnyrigg so if you

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live in the sort of north side of

the town it's not easy to get to.

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And actually should we not have

some provision to help people

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from that side come down?

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And even when it gets to near Dalkeith,

it then scoots off around the south of

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the town rather than into the town centre.

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Mm-hmm.

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One of the plans the active travel

team are working on at the moment is

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Dalkeith Connections, which will actually

improve that, provide a link from

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that pathway into the centre of town.

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And they've had the grant funding

approved to take that from high

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level design into detailed design.

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Yeah.

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But it seems that one of the issues

that they have now is the way that

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the funding award happens is that

it's stage by stage rather than you

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get a funding award to take a scheme

from start right through to delivery.

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So we've got a multitude of

schemes now where they've got

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the funding for detailed design.

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And the guys have done really

well since they came on board as

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active travel team at the council

only, what, three years ago.

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They've got a, a number of schemes to now

to the detailed design stage and funded.

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But yeah, we could do all that work

and in 18 months time they could put

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forward a, a grant bid and be told,

oh, well there's no money to build

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this, which seems slightly nonsensical.

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But it is, it's trying to make it

easier for people to walk because if

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it's easier to walk, people will do it.

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Osbert : You've been involved with the

community council quite a while now.

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You've seen a lot of changes , from ideas

coming through to changes on the ground.

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What's enabled that to happen?

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Is it just been a sort of incremental

and sort of chipping away at it?

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Has there been some big shifts

that have unlocked some of those

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changes from your perspective?

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Brian Farrell: The big shift with

Midlothian Council is them having

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a dedicated active travel team.

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Osbert : Right.

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Brian Farrell: There's not a lot

of concrete evidence on the ground,

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but from the consultations and the

conversations, there's a heck of

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a lot happening in the background.

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And, hopefully the next two to

three years, we'll start to see

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shovels in the ground, grant funding

approved to start delivering on

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this 10 year active travel plan.

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And if we can deliver even

half of it, it'll make a huge

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difference to the ability to

walk and cycle across the county.

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But the rest of it, it's, is it sometimes

feels like you're in the same conversation

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over and over again and trying to cajole

and basically, push a mountain towards

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another one Uhhuh it sometimes feels

like, it might be that there's things

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going on in the background, but it does

sometimes feel like, what's the point?

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Osbert : Mm-hmm.

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Brian Farrell: But equally if you

don't do it, as the great Bob Crow,

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the trade unionist said, if you

fight, you won't always win, but if

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you never fight, you'll always lose.

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Osbert : Ah-huh.

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Brian Farrell: So if you don't try

and push for improvements to be able

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to walk and cycle and catch buses

and trains, if you don't push for

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that, you're never gonna get it.

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Osbert : Yeah.

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Brian Farrell: You push for it, you

won't always get what you're looking

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for, but if you get something that makes

an improvement, then that's worth it.

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When you see things like that new path

in the A7 actually take shape or you

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see something that you've proposed

going into the active travel plan or the

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local development plan and you think,

yeah, okay, so that's, we've not got it.

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But it's written down in the formal plan.

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Osbert : Yeah.

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Brian Farrell: So there's a good

chance that it might get somewhere

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and once it's in the plan, if it

doesn't happen this time round,

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it might happen next time round.

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One aspect that does annoy me is

trying to get the Green Space team on

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side to actually do regular routine

maintenance on the paths that we've got.

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It seems you've got to kinda battle

constantly to get, any sort of clear up at

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the surface or overhanging branches done.

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And really a lot of it should be, a

mini road sweeper twice a year, or the

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overhanging branches it should only

be a once every five years where you

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cut it right back to avoid fouling

the pavement and, cycles and horse

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riders and whoever else uses it.

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You do it properly, it

should last for five years.

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So once you get into that routine, but

it just seems to be, oh no that's too

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difficult 'cause it's not the regular

of just cutting the shrubs in the park

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and cutting the grass in the park.

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But you know, from my perspective

on it is if you don't keep the paths

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that we've got in good condition,

people aren't gonna use them.

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If they're having to duck under branches

all the time, or, step out into the

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road, people won't walk that way, 'cause

it's not safe it's not convenient.

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Osbert : One of the things one hears a

lot about is, it's not just about the

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funding, it's about the coordination,

it's about the communication.

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From where you're sitting do you see

opportunities where it would seem as

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if you've got some people in the same

room, some real progress could be made

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on unlocking some of these things?

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Brian Farrell: Yeah.

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It seems to be the same

with all big organisations.

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They're always prone to the sort

of silo thinking or, left hand not

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being coordinated with the right.

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And we had someone from the Midlothian

Climate Hub come speak to us a couple of

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:

months ago and, looking at opportunities

where we could have, renewable energy

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:

and community land or whatever.

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And I said, we've got this, we meet

in Edinburgh College at Eskbank,

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this massive car park next to us that

belongs to ScotRail for the station.

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You know solar panels

above the station car park.

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You're not taking away any,

any prime agricultural land

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to put a solar farm there.

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It would provide shade to the

cars in weather like this.

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Put a solar farm on every

large ScotRail car park and

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the income they would generate.

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And it's space that's otherwise wasted.

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But of course ScotRail and Network

Rail, their primary function is

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delivery of the operational railway.

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It's that, oh, well, that's

not our responsibility, it's

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not in our remit to do that.

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And so you just think, well, what's,

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What's the point?

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It's,

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Osbert : I guess putting a positive

spin on that, so there's one

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opportunity that potentially, with

wind behind it and so on, yeah.

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something that could

come to fruition there.

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Are there other sort of areas where

you're thinking, yeah, if only we

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could, get some things moving, other

things could really take off here?

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Brian Farrell: We're currently spending,

Midlothian Council currently spending,

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about 12 and a half million pounds on

a refurbishment of the headquarters

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building because there's issues with the

stone cladding, various other issues.

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But nowhere in the plan are they

putting solar panels on the roof of

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that building to help, meet their own

energy needs, reduce the footprint?

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They've just built a new care

facility up in Bonnyrigg as far

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as aware, there's no solar panels

going on the roof of that either.

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:

Mm-hmm.

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you know, You've an array of, council

office buildings around the county,

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you've got a substantial school

estate, all these school roofs

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that could have panels on them.

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But I suppose it, it does come down to

it's there, the capital funding for it.

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And if there's capital funding

for that, what are they having

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to cut to be able to do it?

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And part of that is down to council

budgets because Council budgets

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haven't been just cut to the bone, I

mean, they're now cutting limbs off.

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Which really doesn't help.

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Public sector are really behind the curve

in terms of actually doing what they're

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:

trying to encourage everybody else to do.

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It's maybe all well and good to stand

on the sidelines and point fingers at

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times, but sometimes holding a mirror up

is what's needed to show them that, well,

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actually this is what you should be doing.

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Makes sense.

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I think one of the biggest worries

across the county is that, we're

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being asked to take another almost

9,000 new houses on infrastructure

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that's creaking at the seams.

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And all the way through the consultation,

there's this constant battle trying

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to keep our towns from coalescing and

our green spaces from disappearing.

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And it's, it just seems to be relentless.

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It's becoming one huge urban sprawl

across the north of the county.

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Dalkeith almost to Mayfield, it

almost meets Bonnyrigg, which

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in turn almost meets Rosewell.

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Mayfield and Easthouses

are almost at Newtongrange.

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They're about to be linked with about

:

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So it's sudden coalescence, there's no

green space barrier between the houses.

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We're watching Edinburgh march ever

closer to the boundary of the bypass.

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Just all the green fields disappear.

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And I think there's a great deal

of resentment because local people,

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the traffic's getting worse,

you can't get GP appointments.

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The schools are, full.

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Do we really need to

take 9,000 new houses?

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It just feels that we're being

forced to accept it and we don't

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:

have any way to push back and say,

no, wait a minute, this isn't right.

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Osbert : Mm-hmm.

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Brian Farrell: We want to preserve

our towns with our distinct centres

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and distinct characters and we want

to preserve our green spaces in

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:

between so that we've got places to

walk the dog and take the children.

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:

That's why people are just

disillusioned with the the plans.

440

:

Mm-hmm.

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:

Well, what's the point in giving my

view, because you're not gonna listen.

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:

You're gonna plough ahead and we're

gonna see these spaces allocated for

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:

housing, whether we want it or not.

444

:

Osbert : Mm-hmm.

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:

Brian Farrell: And we have no

way to push back against it.

446

:

And you see that with house builders, the

sites get allocated in development plan,

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:

it's got a notional capacity of say, a

hundred units, and the house builders come

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:

in and so they get permission for 120,

and then they come back and revise the

449

:

plans and put it in for another, for 140.

450

:

By the time it actually

gets built, it's 180 houses.

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:

So that's 80 more houses.

452

:

80 to 160 more cars.

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:

80 to 160 more kids need school places.

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160 people plus that need GP services.

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And at what point do we do, we

realise we can't do that with

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:

the infrastructure we've got?

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There's very strict rules on what planning

contributions can be used for, and

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:

house builders like to plead poverty,

but currently house builders make about

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:

15% profit in every unit they sell.

460

:

So if you're selling a 300,000

pound house in Midlothian you're

461

:

making a tidy sum on that.

462

:

But I know from speaking to elected

members at Midlothian, the contributions

463

:

they're getting for school places

aren't enough, 'cause it's not kept

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:

pace with construction inflation.

465

:

Had development approved in

Eskbank a couple years ago.

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:

We raised the issue there was no

play space within the development.

467

:

The planners gave consent highlighting

that there was an adjacent public

468

:

park, where in recent years, the

council had spent tens of thousands

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:

of pounds in new equipment.

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:

Why haven't we got developer contribution

towards the upkeep of this public park?

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:

It seems crazy.

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:

If you're building hundreds, thousands

of houses, you should be contributing

473

:

to the general upkeep of the county.

474

:

Building huge numbers of houses

at Auchendinny in the outskirts of

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:

Penicuik that has almost no bus service.

476

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Why are we building hundreds of

houses where people can't use public

477

:

transport to get into Edinburgh?

478

:

I think there needs to be some

sort of realisation that if you are

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:

building these thousands of houses,

there needs to be some mechanism

480

:

to fund better public transport.

481

:

And whether that's additional buses or

whether that's upgrading the Border rail

482

:

line City Council have designs about

bringing the charm out this way at some

483

:

point, which, given previous experience

could be, 15 to 20 years from now.

484

:

But, should we be working with the City

Council to form this as part of the

485

:

development plan so that we can extract

developer contributions to deliver it?

486

:

We should be able to extract more

for the benefit of the community, for

487

:

maintaining our active travel network,

our path network, the thousands of

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:

people that are gonna live in these

thousands of houses are gonna use these.

489

:

People, often look at it, oh, well all

these new houses think of all the council

490

:

tax, but council tax is only about a third

of the Council's overall funding so yeah.

491

:

9,000 new houses, their

contribution doesn't scratch the

492

:

sides in terms of what's actually

needed for the Council budgets.

493

:

The council staff involved,

certainly in the transport side

494

:

are doing their best with what

tools they have available to them.

495

:

But it's a bit like trying to,

put your finger in the dike

496

:

to keep the dam from bursting.

497

:

And there you have it.

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:

You've been listening to Brian Farrell,

chair of esque Bank and New Battle

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:

Community Council on Changing Climate,

changing Midlothian with Me Odds.

500

:

But Lancaster, I hope you found the

conversation as fascinating as I did.

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About the Podcast

Changing Climate, Changing Midlothian
Reflections from our community
What does the climate and nature emergency mean for people living and working in Midlothian?

I talk with people across the county and ask what would help them and others make more positive changes for the communities and places they care about.

We’ll discuss how organisations could work together better to co-create, deliver and support even more action on the ground.

As well as sharing inspiring stories and insights with you and other listeners, the conversations in this podcast will help cross sector representatives and community leaders as they meet in October to set collective outcomes and actions for the next three years in the Single Midlothian Plan.

About your host

Profile picture for Osbert Lancaster

Osbert Lancaster

Osbert is an experienced facilitator and podcaster, helping changemakers engage their colleagues and stakeholders to solve challenges today while building capacity to thrive in an unpredictable future. Osbert lives in Edinburgh and has previously worked in Midlothian.