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/

Tesco has launched a publicity campaign to raise awareness of its plastic film recycling service. It is available at its stores including Newtonhill.

The company says: “We’ve made it easier for you to recycle your soft plastics. So you can now drop off your empty crisp packets and sweet wrappers, bread bags and biscuit packets next time you drop in for your shopping.”

The container can usually be found at the entrance to the store, though sometimes it is beside the check-outs at Newtonhill.

You can see the publicity material here: https://www.facebook.com/tesco/videos/933446227375154

Asda at Portlethen also offers a soft plastics recycling service, with green containers placed at the entrances.

The findings of a review of how to deal with gulls will be presented to Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee on March 10.

Officers recommend that an action plan is implemented over five years which will help to mitigate the impact of urban gulls.

Key measures being considered include gull-proofing, egg and nest removal, removing food sources, minimising litter, gull deterrent bins and liaising with communities to provide advice and develop community-led strategies.

Gulls are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which means it is illegal to capture, injure or destroy any wild bird, or interfere with its nest or eggs, without a licence.

More here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=260046619634137&set=a.242546104717522

The death of former Portlethen community council chairman Gordon Munn has just been posted elsewhere on Facebook.

He had been in hospital and had expected to return home. The posting says it has taken a long time for the family to come to terms with their loss – he died in July.

I had a lot of respect for Gordon and was indebted to him for his help, particularly during his time on the community council. He will be missed.

Three projects in the North Kincardine ward were given grants from Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee’s “top-up” budget towards the cost of the projects.

Newtonhill, Muchalls and Cammachmore Community Council was awarded £4418 for three stone feature walls at the entrances to the three villages, incorporating the village name, along with an image representative of the local history and heritage.

Friends of Newtonhill Primary School was awarded £1874.05 to help purchase bulbs, planters, raised beds, topsoil and a picnic table. This project aims to increase biodiversity, provide opportunities for growing food and enhance outside learning.

Portlethen Bowling Club was awarded up to £6000 to tarmac the existing gravel footpath. It is a council-owned property and leased to the club. As a result, the club does not qualify for any outside grants.

Councillors heard from the club’s Walter McMillan who said that tarring the path will allow wheelchair users to access the grounds. Currently they have to be carried. The building is used for meetings by other groups such as the tennis club, the men’s shed, and local schools.

As BT Openreach will have an engineer working on an overhead structure, it will be necessary for safety reasons to close the U62K country road from the Stripeside turnoff towards Stranog Hill at Maryculter.

The closure will last between 9:30am and 3:30pm on Monday 21 March.

Site notices will be erected in due course indicating the temporary restriction to traffic and the alternative route via U62K – C5K Stranog – C13K Lairhillock – U62K and vice versa.

Emergency and pedestrian access is to be maintained. Vehicular access to affected properties is to be maintained whenever possible.

Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee met via Skype today. Here are some of the key points put before the nine councillors present.

HILLSIDE HOUSING UPDATE

The planning service intends to bring a report to committee on 26 April about a planning application for 175 houses at Hillside. A rezoning exercise for local primary schools has not been successful.

Councillors were told today that the planning service is working with the Education Service “to model the impact of different variations of housing completions per year on Hillside Primary School capacity.”

FAR TOO MANY EMPTY HOMES

At July last year there were 2589 long-term empty properties in Aberdeenshire. Of these 841 have been empty for more than two years. In Kincardine and Mearns, the corresponding figures are 321 lying empty, with 98 homes empty for more than two years.

From 2015 properties which have been empty for more than two years are subject to an additional 100% council tax charge.

I asked officers about these shocking figures, to try to understand why so many are lying empty, particularly when there are people on housing waiting lists. The committee heard that officers are to survey owners of these properties in the coming months to find out what support the council can offer to help bring these houses back into use.

CHAPELTON SCHOOL PLANS AND PORTLETHEN ACADEMY CAPACITY

We heard that it is proposed to open a new primary school at Chapelton in the 2025/26 school session, with it growing initially within Newtonhill Primary School.

The report says that “Newtonhill School is expected to exceed capacity in 2026. There will be a requirement for a school at Chapelton in due course, and plans for this are in development. This will then relieve the pressure at Newtonhill School.”

The developers are expecting an increased uptake in housing occupations. The planning permission conditions state that a school should be provided after the 489th house is built. That is expected in 2025 or 2026. Very much a fluid situation.

The situation at Portlethen Academy was also addressed in the report: “Portlethen Academy has a rising roll due to continued house building within catchment. Officers are working with the school management team to identify ways to manage pupil numbers within the existing footprint of the building in the first instance.

“The extent to which Portlethen Academy will exceed capacity is in part related to the speed of delivery at Chapelton. This is being carefully monitored to assess future requirements.”

Portlethen Academy has received out-of-area requests and these placing requests are now being refused, apart from exceptional circumstances.

In the interim there could be a reconfiguration of facilities within the academy to accommodate more pupils. More information will be made available as progress is made.

The projected school rolls are shown below.

Lastly, the reports before councillors can be found here: https://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=8&meetid=19926

I hear that the Skateraw Hall in Newtonhill is holding an open weekend.

It runs on Saturday and Sunday (5 and 6 March) from 2pm to 4pm.

There will be a display of the history of the hall plus past events and also a presentation of current groups and activities.

Of course it is only a couple of months since the Skateraw Hall transferred from private ownership and it now belongs to the village, thanks to fund-raising and grants.

Skateraw Hall trustees will be pleased to welcome everyone … do come along.

The following new application in the North Kincardine ward can be viewed on the Aberdeenshire Council planning register: https://upa.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/online-applications/.

APP/2022/0393
Date validated: 24 February 2022.
Site address: Sea Scape, Old Inn Road, Findon, AB12 3RL.
Applicant: Mr Stephen Tonner c/o Architects Ltd, Albyn Architects, Suite 1 Chattan Mews, 18 Chattan Place, Aberdeen, AB10 6RD.
Application: Full planning permission for alterations and extension to dwellinghouse.
Public comment expiry date: 17 March 2022.