The third year of the Aberdeenshire Council’s Coastal Communities Challenge Fund programme is now live.

Grants are being targeted at community groups, third sector organisations and small businesses on Aberdeenshire’s coastline and can fund a range of activities with positive economic, social or environmental impacts.

The fund distributes revenues generated by Crown Estate Scotland.

In the first two years grants were offered to an array of projects including equipment for sailing clubs, investments in fishing businesses, improved community facilities and access improvements to beaches and the coastline.

Funding of between £2,500 and £25,000 will be available, however applicants must make a minimum 10% match-funding contribution to projects. Small business applicants must contribute 50% match funding.

Applications must meet the following priorities:

• Supporting the development of active travel routes along, to and from the coastline
• Developing the coastal economy and sustainable tourism
• Creating or enhancing community, leisure and recreational facilities
• Safeguarding, restoring or enhancing the coastal environment.

The deadline for submitting applications is Monday, 16 May. All projects must be completed by 31 March 2023.

Potential applicants can access the application form and guidance at nesflag.org.uk/CCCF Applicants can email coastalcommunities@aberdeenshire.gov.uk for more information.

The final step was taken this afternoon for opening a vaccination centre in Stonehaven’s Invercarron Resource Centre.

Approval was given by Aberdeenshire Council’s communities committee for minor works costing £75,000 to make it fit for purpose. This includes flooring works, removal of built-in cupboards, privacy film on ground floor windows, addition of a wash hand basin, improved lighting, and making space for vaccine fridges plus hard-wiring. The work should take about six weeks.

The new centre will cater for nearly all vaccinations including flu, covid, and shingles for residents across Kincardine and Mearns.

If approval had not been given today then residents would have had to travel to Aberdeen or further afield for vaccinations. Nationally general practices no longer offer such vaccination services.
Currently Stonehaven Town Hall hosts the vaccination centre but it is being returned to normal use on 1 April.

The decision to use Invercarron was not one made by Aberdeenshire Council and legally councillors had no discretion today about the procurement approval. The decision had been taken by the Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP). Councillors were told that alternative venues were considered, but Invercarron was the only viable option.

The proposal attracted some opposition from Stonehaven residents. Accordingly the committee agreed today on a 12-2 vote to instruct officers to review the governance route and processes, and to establish a focus group with community representatives, the HSCP, council officers and other appropriate services, and that they assess the need and map out possible solutions for the groups who have been displaced from Invercarron.

The HSPC has also given an undertaking to review the situation annually.

People are still being encouraged to do a lateral flow test twice a week and to test before meeting someone at high risk.

Full details here: https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/covid-19/community-testing

You can get free lateral flow tests by:
– Ordering online at https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests
– Phoning 119 (7am – 11pm daily. Calls are free of charge)
– Collecting from one of Aberdeenshire Council’s mobile centres at the following locations:

Monday 14 March – Stonehaven Market Square Car park, 10am – 12pm (collect only)
Tuesday 15 March – Portlethen Asda Car Park, 10am – 12pm (collect only)
Wednesday 16 March – Stonehaven Market Square, 1.30pm – 3.30pm (collect only)
Friday 18 March – Portlethen Asda Car Park 10am – 12.30pm & 1pm- 3.30pm.

Today was the final meeting of Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee before May’s elections. Here are a few headlines.

SPEEDING – The number of people being injured or being killed on our roads has been falling steadily. Police Scotland will continue to monitor speeding as this is a factor.

MORE TREES – Councillors agreed a report should come to a future meeting about how the council could plant more trees, particularly in light of the widespread damage caused by recent storms. The provision of a grant fund to support communities planting trees is also to be looked at.

LOCAL PLAN – Disappointingly, it will be May at the earliest before Scottish Reporters deliver their verdict on Aberdeenshire’s proposed local development plan. It sets out where development should and should not take place. The draft was submitted last March. Officers predict it could be August before the new plan is adopted.

NUISANCE GULLS – An action plan to deal with urban gulls was approved today. It is a complex situation as gulls are a protected species. The plan includes how to limit the availability of food (e.g. through littering from food outlets and the public feeding the birds), egg and nest removal, and treatment of buildings to prevent nesting and landing. There is no quick fix.

CHARGES – The North East Biological Records Centre is to increase its charges to commercial users by 10%. Councillors also agreed that charges will be introduced for exclusive activity sessions which the ranger service can provide for commercial organisations. This will be fixed at £30 per hour.

BUSINESS DISTRICTS – The committee agreed to support the continuation of business improvement districts in Inverurie and Peterhead. A ballot is to take place among businesses to confirm they wish to continue the arrangement.

PAVEMENT PARKING – Comments are to be submitted to a Scottish Government consultation on proposed regulations to introduce a ban on pavement parking. Councils will have discretion to identify exemptions from such prohibitions. An Act was approved in 2019 to ban pavement parking, but has not yet been brought into force by the Scottish Government.

ROADS POLICIES – Policies were approved covering street naming and numbering, signing of tourist facilities, enforcement of roads and traffic authority powers, electric vehicle charging, road markings and vehicle activated signs. The issue of electric vehicle charging caused most discussion, particularly the challenge for residents who do not off-road parking at their homes. Officers are to continue to look for a solution but a cable trailing across a pavement is not supported.

LITTERING – Aberdeenshire is to trial a sample of litter bins which have sensors which alert the council when it requires emptying.

TRANSPORT – Disappointment was expressed at the Scottish Government’s strategic transport proposals for dualling of the A96, the lack of support for a rail link towards Peterhead, and no direct commitment for more local stations including Newtonhill. Feedback will be passed to Transport Scotland.

WANT MORE? – All the reports can be found at https://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=495&meetid=19814

This afternoon Aberdeenshire councillors unanimously agreed a statement in support of the Ukrainian people. The council is ready to help resettle refugees fleeing the war.

The motion backed by councillors reads:

“Aberdeenshire Council reaffirms the commitment it made in September 2015 to actively supporting the resettlement of refugees. The Council expresses its full support and solidarity to the Ukrainian people and our peers in local and regional government and will contribute actively to a formal Ukrainian Refugee Resettlement Scheme. Moreover, if demand for resettlement exceeds existing council commitments, we resolve to increase our commitment appropriately.”

Conversations are continuing with national governments to progress ways in which Aberdeenshire Council can support those worst affected by the conflict. A page has been created on the council website which contains advice and links for ways you can help out, with donations or space you can offer. https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/communi…/ukraine-support/

Today councillors spent several hours setting budgets for the coming year … revenue, capital and carbon.

The administration councillors (Conservative, Liberal Democrat and independent) and the opposition parties (SNP, Green, Alba and others) put forward their slightly differing views.

Alba councillors tried to change the council tax decision made last month by the full Aberdeenshire Council but received no support.

The other highlight which stuck in my mind was a bid by the Green party to abandon road maintenance for six months. To be fair, they have put that forward before. The pandemic put paid to most road maintenance of course and that didn’t end well. We still have potholes awaiting repair. That didn’t gain majority support.

You can read more about the £660m revenue budget and so on here https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/apps/news/release.aspx?newsID=8480.

A contract to deliver Aberdeenshire Health & Social Care Partnership’s community-based mental health services has been awarded to Penumbra Mental Health.

The Edinburgh-based charity already operates a number of mental health services across the North-east. Penumbra will offer a core, person-centered, seven-days-a-week service to promote better mental health and well-being.

The contract was awarded following a competitive tendering process, with Penumbra replacing SAMH.

More here: https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/apps/news/release.aspx?newsid=8475

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has launched a community resilience fund to support communities in their power distribution network area to improve local resilience.

SSEN says the fund can be used to purchase equipment such as generators. If the fund is oversubscribed then priority will be given to projects that support:
• communities who are particularly remote or isolated and have experienced emergency events due to poor weather in the past.
• in areas affected by recent significant storms which resulted in extended power loss.
• support areas which can be difficult for emergency services to respond to during events.
• communities who reference local resilience plans.

To be eligible a group must be based within the SSEN distribution area, and although there is no need to be a charity, the group must have a constitution and be set up on a not-for-profit basis. The deadline for applications is Friday 29 April.

Further information can be found at https://www.ssen.co.uk/about-ssen/our-communities/resilient-communities-fund/north-of-scotland-fund/?utm_source=KDP+Bulletin&utm_campaign=3b42ac0514-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_01_09_19_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_764b19c244-3b42ac0514-106117039.

The Netherley road is the official diversion route for five days while the Slug road is closed for repair work.

The A957 Slug road will be closed at Rickarton from the U153K junction until Westerton of Bogheadley, Durris for five days from Monday 14 March.

This is to enable Aberdeenshire Council to carry out surface dressing preparatory work (fill potholes and suchlike, with surface dressing to take place at a later date).

Emergency and pedestrian access will be maintained and vehicular access to affected properties will be maintained whenever possible.

Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards service today issued its latest bulletin about crams and doorstep frauds.

A Buchan resident received a phone call from a person claiming to be an art dealer calling from a London (020) number, who was clearly trying to drum up new business. They tried to get the resident to sell her
shares, to invest in a piece of artwork by Salvador Dali.

Initially the resident ended the call but the caller called back twice, becoming pushier each time. The caller thereafter asked the resident for her personal details, which the resident gave. A few days later a package arrived by courier for the resident from Spain, purporting to be a binding contract between the resident and the caller, stating that the resident had agreed to buy this piece of artwork and that the sale would be effected on 1 June 2022, costing the resident £1525.

This appears to be very similar to scams which have been reported in other parts of the country. The truth of the matter is that the resident had not agreed to any such contract, had not signed it and that it was unenforceable.

The scam depended on the resident being overawed by the formality of it all. In such circumstances, we would advise that anyone who receives such a call should never give out their personal details to cold callers, but simply hang up as soon as they realise that it is a scam. If the caller becomes persistent or the number of such calls are becoming problematic it might be worth considering a call blocking device or speaking to your telephone provider about their call blocking services.

PHISHING SCAM

A Mearns resident received a phone call from someone who claimed that they could help her reclaim £6000 back on her council tax due to a rebanding exercise. The resident became suspicious when the caller asked for her bank card details to pay a fee for the service.

The resident then told the caller that she would check with Aberdeenshire Council. The caller told the resident; it was a waste of time checking, the council don’t know about the re-banding and that the caller’s company was separate from the council.

This was a scam. The council is the only organisation which would deal with council tax matters; it’s also extremely unlikely that an external company would be involved in such an exercise and virtually impossible that council would not know about it. Most likely, the caller was phishing for bank card details to then commit dishonesties with the resident’s details. Thankfully, the resident wasn’t fooled.

ADVANCE FEE FRAUD

Unfortunately, another resident in Marr wasn’t so lucky. He received a letter advising that he’d won a large sum of money in a timeshare competition but that he would have to pay nearly £4000 to release the prize.

Believing that it was genuine, the resident sent off a cheque as requested but then heard nothing more, though he was then bombarded by other similar phone calls. Later, it transpired that the whole thing was a scam; there had been no competition and no prize.

This type of scam is called an Advance Fee Fraud, often where scammers convince a victim that they have won a big prize, be it cash, holidays, cars or similar, although this type of scam can come in many guises. All the victim has to do is send a sum of money, whether it’s called an admin fee, an insurance fee, a shipping fee etc., to the scammer for the prize to be released.

Usually, when the victim has made payment, one of two things happens; either a new fee is requested (sometimes more than one in succession, to keep the victim paying) or the scammer simply cease all communications. Eventually, the victim is left high and dry.

The elements of this scam are:
• An unsolicited communication, whether e-mail, phone call, letter etc.
• The promise of a great benefit whether it’s cash, prizes, a job, romance…
• A request for a smaller sum of cash to cover fees, expenses before the benefit can be realised.

As with the old adage, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is” and a newer one “You’ve got to be in it to win it”. If you don’t recall entering a competition for said cash or prize, how would the caller legitimately know who you are and have your contact details? If you didn’t apply for a job or actively
seek a partner (perhaps on a dating website), how and why would the caller pluck your name out of the ether? These questions should be satisfactorily answered before you decide to part with money (which is the usual objective of these scams).

Far safer to put that email in the spam folder, that letter in the bin or if you are being pestered by phone calls, as in the first article above, consider a call blocking device or service.

COVID TEXTS

In previous bulletins there was an article about scam covid texts telling recipients that they had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the Omicron variant. These texts continue to do the rounds in sizeable numbers. Some other indicators that the text is a scam are:
• There is no ‘www’ prefix in the web address in the body of the text
• There are fairly basic spelling mistakes in the wording of the text
• If you click on the link in the text and go down the rabbit hole far enough (not recommended) you will see that you will be asked for personal details to post the kit to you at a cost of less than £2. No business would survive on this margin alone.

Indications are that this is a phishing scam, looking to obtain peoples’ personal details to sell onto other criminals who will then target them with other scams. Please don’t respond to the texts but forward them to 7726 so that the telephone providers can block them.

TOBACCO

Trading Standards monitors the sale of tobacco products and cigarettes, amongst a number of other age restricted products.

Wednesday 9 March 2022 will be national No Smoking Day. This year’s theme is ‘Quit Your Way’. If you are considering cutting down or stopping smoking, more information can be found at https://www.ashscotland.org.uk/nosmokingday

CONTACT

For urgent Trading Standards matters, contact Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards at 01467 537222. For non-urgent enquiries, please contact Consumer Advice Scotland at https://www.consumeradvice.scot/ or on 0808 164 6000.

Contact Police Scotland on 999 if you need urgent police assistance or 101 for non-urgent matters.

For more information about scams please visit Friends Against Scams at
https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/ or Take Five at https://takefivestopfraud.org.uk/