Newtonhill, Muchalls and Cammachmore Community Council held their monthly meeting by Teams tonight for the first time. A packed agenda.

LIBRARY – Tim Stephen from Live Life Aberdeenshire attend the next meeting to speak on a variety of issues including library provision and developer obligations.

POTHOLES – Contractors are working in Portlethen and are expected to turn their attention to repairs in Newtonhill in two or three weeks. I told the meeting that resurfacing of Old Mill Road should take place before the end of the financial year. The road surface on the approaches to the zebra crossing should be resurfaced and new markings, also in March.

PARKING – Concerns were expressed about inconsiderate parking by people attending Saturday’s football match in Newtonhill. Traffic jams were the result, and contact has been made with Aberdeenshire Council to expand the number of no-parking cones. The community council was asked to write to Police Scotland with a freedom of information request asking how many motorists had been fined for parking offences in the village in the last six months.

PLANNING – A replacement mobile phone mast south of the Bettridge Centre has been approved by council planners.

DRAINAGE WORK – This is due to take place in Monduff Road, Muchalls, from 24 January.

SCOTTISH WATER – Community councillors were concerned about the implications of the mains replacement when work starts at the top of Newtonhill Road at the junction with the A92 in Newtonhill. The access from the dual carriageway will have to close. Members are worried that the diversion will be via the Stonehaven junction. What will this mean for bus services, not only the service buses but the school buses too. The community council is to contact Aberdeenshire Council.

BROADBAND – Aberdeenshire Council is to be contacted to ask for an update on fibre roll-out in Newtonhill. A report before the local authority’s infrastructure services committee tomorrow says that “Builds within Aberdeenshire commenced in November 2021, starting with the Portlethen & Newtonhill areas. At the time of writing this report, no properties have gone live on full-fibre within Aberdeenshire as part of the R100 build-outs.” R100 is the Scottish Government’s “Reaching 100%” programme providing superfast broadband to every premises in Scotland.

FANS – Community councillors agreed that the police should be contacted after football fans heading to Pittodrie last night were seen to be alighting from supporters’ buses on the A92 at Newtonhill to relieve themselves. This was unacceptable.

WANT MORE? The next meeting is on Wednesday 16 February, but whether that is in person in the Skateraw Hall or via Teams will depend on covid-19 restrictions, among other factors. No members of the public asked to join tonight’s meeting.

Owing to Aberdeenshire Council’s Road Service carrying out drainage investigation works it will be necessary in the interests of public safety to close Monduff Road in Muchalls for five days from Monday 24 January.

Site notices will be erected in due course indicating the temporary restriction to traffic and the alternative route.
Vehicular access to affected properties is to be maintained whenever possible.

Earlier today a Scottish Gas van stopped one of the Stagecoach buses on its route through Newtonhill. It was parked in a public road between Skateraw Road and Hillhead Road which is a turning point for local buses.

This part of Newtonhill is an old fishing village where the roads are narrow.

However, to be fair to the driver there are not any parking restrictions in this location, though all locals know this area should be kept clear. Presumably the driver was working nearby.

I asked the council officers to consider parking restrictions in this small section of road. This is not the first time this has happened, though it does seem to be happening more regularly now.

The service responded by saying that they will use this as a catalyst for reviewing the route of the buses in this part of Newtonhill to ascertain any prohibition of waiting that is required to prevent this happening in the future. This process will need to successfully pass through the Kincardine & Mearns Area Committee for approval and resultant action for the permanent prohibition of waiting.

Aberdeenshire Council Trading Standards Service today issued its latest warning about local scams.

DOORSTEP CRIME

Trading Standards has received a couple of reports recently about people coming to residents’ doors claiming to be ‘officials’ (unfortunately, I’m unable to disclose any further detail at this time), then gaining entry to the house, and in one instance misleading the resident who then lost a substantial amount of money as a result.

Can I take this opportunity to remind everyone that when a cold caller comes to your door, please don’t take them at face value no matter who they say they are.

Keep them on the doorstep, ask for identification and ask what they want. If they offer identification, accept it, advise the caller(s) that you will lock your door then verify their identity by calling their HQ (remember to obtain the phone number from the Phone Book or Yellow Pages – don’t use the contact information on the
ID card as it may be fake), then call the agency concerned to ask if they have employees as detailed on the ID card and if they should be at your door. Examine the card carefully for signs of tampering in case it has been stolen and altered. You may also wish to call a friend or neighbour to come over to support
you in this sort of situation.

Remember too, no-one can legally force their way into your home without a warrant (and if they have one, they should show it to you) except a police officer in uniform and only when trying to quell a disturbance, responding to cries for help or when in close pursuit of a suspect, otherwise you can refuse them entry.

If you have any concerns about a cold caller at your door, especially one who is becoming problematic, call Police Scotland on 101 or, if it’s an emergency, call 999.

SCAMS

Amazon – One resident in south Aberdeenshire recently received a phone call purportedly from Amazon, advising that an £800 mobile phone had been ordered on her Amazon account. Immediately discounting the matter correctly as a scam, she hung up.

The truth of the matter was that the call had nothing to do with Amazon and its intent was to frighten the resident into taking action to stop the ‘sale’. Similar reports from outwith the Shire suggest that the scammers are trying to get residents to press a number on their phone keypad to sort things out about the phone, but what actually happens is that the resident is transferred to a high tariff phone line where they are put on hold, all the time racking up a large phone bill which is later credited to the scammer’s account.

If you receive such a phone call, be like our resident and simply hang up.

Courier – A resident in the Formartine area recently tried to sell his old bicycle on social media. Shortly after advertising the bike, he was contacted by a person who was keen to buy. He was advised that payment would be handed to him via private courier, but there would be an additional charge for insurance, for transporting the cash in a sealed envelope. The resident was also advised that he would have to pay the courier first for the total amount but the envelope would contain a full reimbursement.

In truth of course, there would be no money in the envelope which would likely only be discovered once the courier had left, leaving the resident out of pocket to the tune of several hundred pounds.

Thankfully, the resident realised very early on that it was a scam and took the offer to buy no further. Sharp-eyed readers will also recall a similar scam in Bulletin 31 involving second hand beds.

Rogue roofers – Over the last few weeks, after the effects of Storm Arwen and the high winds we’ve had recently, Trading Standards have received a substantial number of complaints about problems with rogue roofers.
Needless to say, the excellent work done by genuine tradesmen goes unremarked. These problems have involved ‘roofers’ who: ask for money up front before any work takes place; fail to turn up at the agreed date to start work; fail to respond to customers’ messages; are aggressive or intimidating with customers; produce shoddy work and fail to remedy the problem they were employed to remedy; fail to provide written quotes or invoices, take cash payments then deny payment had been received and more besides.

Problems with rogue roofers is a subject covered a number of times in previous bulletins. In summary, some points to consider:

• Many of these problems start when customers ask for recommendations on social media or advertise on certain websites for tradesmen to do work for them. This is a risky strategy. Too often this results in the customers
having no way to check a tradesman’s history, so the customer goes into the transaction blind and they end up with shoddy work and a large bill.

• Normal practice is that the customer will arrange for the tradesman to view the work required and arrangements made between both parties.

The tradesman then gives the customer a quote, usually written or emailed, which is also proof that a particular company had been approached about doing the work. The quote should cover the type of work required, an approximate cost and an estimate of how long the work will take. This document, which is required by law, is an important document should a dispute arise, so should be kept safe by the customer.

• Tradesmen do not normally ask for a deposit before any work commences. They usually have the financial resources to cover the work and invoice the customer on completion or, if it’s a big job, once the work has reached a particular stage. This latter point should be agreed beforehand with the customer. Where a tradesman asks for a deposit upfront, it may be a sign that a company might struggle financially to complete the work.

• Once the work is complete or when big jobs reach certain stages, the tradesman usually invoices the customer for all costs; time, materials and any incidentals incurred BEFORE payment is made. Like the quote it should be in durable form (written or e-mailed). This is also an important document as it shows that the company took on the work and now considers it complete. This document should also be kept safe by the customer, in case a dispute arises. With both the quote and invoice, they should be provided wholly by the tradesmen and the customer should not be involved in compiling these, as has happened in the past.

• Should a tradesman become aggressive or intimidating to a customer, this should be reported to Police Scotland immediately.

• Where tradesmen fail to turn up to start work or progress it or fail to reply to respond to customers’ messages, these could be grounds for ending the contract. If a customer decides to do this they should advise the tradesman in writing or by e-mail as soon as possible. This message should also be dated, to show when the contract was ended.

• Likewise, where the work has been completed to an unsatisfactory standard, the customer should allow the tradesman the opportunity to remedy this. Where the work hasn’t been remedied, this too may be grounds for ending the contract. Please note though that with these terminations, there may still be costs payable by the customer for work already done or expenses incurred by the tradesman.

• Where payment of any sort is made to a tradesman, cash should be avoided unless a signed and dated receipt for the cash is provided as unscrupulous traders have claimed that cash payments they’ve received were not actually paid. Where possible traceable methods such as cheques or direct bank transfers should be used as these will show up on bank statements at a later date and can assist in tracing missing tradesmen. Also, please don’t be tempted by promises of avoiding taxes by paying cash as this could lead to more serious problems with HMRC.
It is strongly recommended that the above advice is followed when dealing with tradesmen, to reduce the likelihood of problems. Reputable tradesmen will probably already follow these rules.

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/

Today local councillors attended Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee.

We discussed proposals to change the process by which planning applications are dealt with. In essence the proposals would mean less involvement for councillors.

Councillors on the area committee were being asked for their views before the matter goes to full council for a decision.

Officers were suggesting that 10 public representations would be required to trigger a direct referral to the area committee. At the moment the trigger is six. The majority of councillors – including me – today urged that no change was required. It was also proposed that all applications if recommended for refusal would be decided by officers without referral to councillors. There were other technical proposals which would affect the role of ward councillors.

What concerned me most was that – if approved – there would be less involvement in making planning decisions for ward members. It may be a more efficient system, but less democratic. In my view.

The committee voted by 8-3 to reject the proposals and express our support for the current system.

Councillors supported a proposal to increase charges by 10% for providing biological data to commercial users of the North East Scotland Biological Centre (Nesbrec). The final decision will be taken by Aberdeenshire’s infrastructure services committee.

Backing was also given to a proposal to introduce charges for the delivery of exclusive activity sessions which the Ranger Service provides for commercial organisations. The suggested rate would be £28.89 to cover costs and overheads.

It is thought there will be a demand for such a service from the tourism and cruise liner industry. The final decision will be taken by Aberdeenshire’s infrastructure services committee.

All the reports discussed at the meeting can be found here: https://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=8&meetid=19924

North Kincardine Rural Community Council met tonight via Zoom to discuss a variety of local issues.

The provision of electric vehicle charging points came under the spotlight, with the three Aberdeenshire ward councillors present saying it is not the responsibility of the local authority to provide these chargers, but the commercial world. However the local authority is drawing up a policy on EV chargers, including planning requirements, to which the community council will contribute.

Potholes came under scrutiny with one at the junction of the road from Kirkton of Maryculter with the South Deeside Road causing particular concern.

Community councillors also discussed the cleaning and repairs to local war memorials. The community council has a sub committee which will discuss these matters further, particularly at Banchory Devenick and Kirkton of Maryculter. Funding could be sought from the local authority’s Kincardine and Mearns area budget.

Other issues discussed included the forthcoming royal jubilee (with the suggestion that the community council donates a tree to each primary school); possible changes to the levels of public objections to planning applications needed to take the matter before local councillors; and possible changes to changes to the waste collection system (which will be discussed by Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee on Thursday).

The next meeting is on Monday 21 February.

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/.

TRE/2022/0008
Date validated: 14 January 2022.
Site address: Parkend Cottage, 10 Marine Terrace, Muchalls, AB39 3RD.
Applicant: A.C. Morrison & Richards LLP.
Application: Trees in Conservation Area for Tree Works (Retrospective).
Public comment expiry date: Not applicable for this type of application.

On Thursday Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee will receive a report on plans to increase recycling.

This includes providing households with a 180L bin for metals and plastics. The current blue-lidded 240L bin would be for paper and cardboard.

Collections would be on a three week rota, with food waste being collected weekly. The change should cut the volume of waste going to landfill. It should also lead to annual savings of £564,000 to £765,000.

There is also a recommendation to councillors to instruct the Director of Environment & Infrastructure Services to further explore a business case for an opt-in chargeable garden waste collection service.

The current waste strategy was agreed some time ago to cover the 2019-23 period, so perhaps matters have changed. Assuming this work is approved, we will see in due course what a fresh deliberation produces.

The full report can be found here, and scroll to Item 11 on the agenda: https://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=495&meetid=19813

Meanwhile the Mearns Leader has carried a useful summary of the report: https://www.mearnsleader.co.uk/news/people/three-weekly-collections-and-an-extra-bin-proposed-for-aberdeenshire-households-3526153

Aberdeenshire Council today agreed its pitch and outdoor physical activity space strategy.

It has been a long time in preparation, with councillors, user groups and communities being involved.

This should have positive implications for Portlethen. An assessment shows that the Portlethen area is third in a list of 17 communities needing significant further investment in the provision of pitches across Aberdeenshire.

The report includes a proposal to establish five grass pitches as a competitive sports pitches in Kincardine and Mearns at Laurencekirk (one), Portlethen (two), and Stonehaven (two).

The report also proposes to convert the existing Hillside synthetic pitch into a football compliant surface. I reminded councillors about the aspirations of Portlethen residents to have such a full-size pitch.

It says: “It would also be possible to develop a full-size floodlit facility at Hillside (extending the existing facility). However, such a facility would require a pavilion as existing facilities would be inadequate to support a full-size facility.” The cost is put at up to £1.2 million, and potential timescale of 2024 – 2026. My understanding is that community fund-raising is likely to be required to supplement the contribution from the council.

The report also says that one project would be the provisional additional development of pitches in Newtonhill with a possible direct developer allocation. I asked at the meeting for clarification of what this means as the proposed local development plan does not include any further development in the village.

Returning to the overall proposals, communities committee chair Anne Stirling told the meeting: “The implementation phase requires us to allocate additional revenue and capital resources.

“This programme signals a significant investment of just under £9 million in our people across Aberdeenshire and underlines the importance of providing suitable outdoor space for a range of activities for the benefit of everyone.

“I also welcome the approach outlined to develop a single booking process for the use of Live Life Aberdeenshire and Education facilities which will streamline the current complex arrangements.”

Education would control school pitch use during the delivery of the school curriculum.

FINANCIAL POSITION

Councillors also heard that there is a projected overbudget position of £4.829 million for this financial year, which does not include the costs of Storm Arwen which are still being collated. However, there is confidence that the council will close the year on budget. The cost of running the council over the year is £639.519 million.

Meanwhile capital spending has slowed down because of the impact of covid. It is estimated that the council will be £29.553m under budget position at the year end. The report from officers says that large projects can take longer to deliver than expected and as such it is important to view the Capital Plan as a series of connected years.

WANT MORE INFORMATION?

All the reports can be found here: https://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=1&meetid=19854 The pitches report is Item 9.

Police Scotland’s report on the Kincardine and Mearns area for December was published today.

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, VIOLENCE AND DISORDER:

There has been a decrease in the anti-social behaviour calls, with 21 being received.

There were seven assault crime reports raised; five reported are detected and have been reported to the procurator fiscal and the Youth Justice Management Unit. Meanwhile, one is still being investigated. There were no serious assaults reported.

ACQUISITIVE CRIME:

There have been 10 thefts with seven remaining undetected and are still being investigated. Three of the thefts relate to shoplifting offences, two of which were detected and the person responsible reported to the procurator fiscal. The third crime is still under investigation.

These crimes include entry being forced to a garage in Maryculter and a number of tools stolen from within. This is still under investigation.

In St Cyrus, a 33-year-old male was charged with a sneak-in theft to a residential property where soft furnishings were stolen. He has been reported.

ROAD SAFETY AND ROAD CRIME:

In December there were two drivers found to be under the influence of alcohol. They have been charged and reported.

There was one reported incident of dangerous driving, and four reported incidents of careless driving, all of which are detected and reported to the fiscal.

Numerous road safety checks using the Unipar laser device have been undertaken. Several new locations have been put forward as areas of concern for speeding, which will be visited in future operations.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:

As an Intelligence-led organisation, Police Scotland depends on members of the public to come forward and provide information. We like to know the ‘who, what, why, when, where and how’ in relation to criminals who are living or committing crime in our communities.

Nothing should be considered too small or irrelevant, things like names, nicknames, addresses, descriptions and vehicle registration numbers are all very helpful.

All information received is treated confidentially and measures are put in place to prevent the source of the information being identified, before it is shared with police officers. Information received helps prevent and detect crime, disrupt criminal activity and apprehend offenders.

CONTACTS:

 101 – Non emergency
 Email – StonehavenLowerDeesideCPT@Scotland.pnn.police.uk
 Twitter – @NorthEPolice
 Facebook – www.Facebook.com/NorthEastPoliceDivision
 Web – www.scotland.police.uk
 999 – Emergency
 0800 555 111 – Crimestoppers