Views on recycling sought

Residents are being asked to take part in Aberdeenshire Council’s Big Recycling Challenge by giving their views on the authority’s recycling and waste services to help recycle more materials and send less to landfill.
 
Aberdeenshire’s recycling rate is currently only 43.5%. However, a recent analysis of landfill bins from households across the region shows the recycling rate could be more than 70% if the recycling services currently available were used effectively.
 
Garden waste is collected at recycling centres and at additional seasonal recycling points. Residents are being asked to consider whether alternative arrangements would help.
 
This could mean the introduction of a paid-for kerbside collection or reduced frequency of landfill bin collections to allow garden waste to be lifted from households using the same bin lorries.
 
It is thought the cost of a paid-for garden waste collection could be in the region of £40 to £50 per household per year.
 
Other possible changes could include smaller landfill waste bins.
 
Give your views on the Big Recycling Challenge here: http://bit.ly/RecyclingAbshireSurvey

Praise for out-of-school club

Portlethen Out of School Project at the academy has been praised by the Care Inspectorate after a visit on 14 December.
 
The inspector’s newly-published report gave the club – which looks after a maximum of 91 children – a “very good” rating for care, support and the environment. That’s the second best of six possible ratings. In particular the inspector commended the staff for making children happy and independent.
 
The service operates five days a week during term-time and school holidays, provided by Aberdeenshire Council.
 
You can see the full report at (scroll down the list to find the Out Of School Project): http://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/inspection-reports?page=3

Rail improvements coming down the track

Yesterday two Network Rail managers spoke to Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee about improvements to local services. So I grabbed the opportunity to press the case for more local stations, especially Newtonhill.
 
Kintore station is due to reopen next year as part of the  Aberdeen/Inverness improvements, as is a station at Dalcross serving Inverness Airport.
 
Network Rail is reinstating a double track along much of the 108 mile route so that quicker, more regular services can be provided. At the moment the journey takes at best 2 hours 20 minutes.
 
From May until August this year services from the north will terminate at Dyce with buses every 10 minutes to the city centre. In 2019 there will be a further 14 week closure between Dyce and Inverurie as track work progresses. Again buses will be provided.
 
The aim is for a half-hourly rail service between Aberdeen and Inverurie in 2019, combined with an hourly Aberdeen/Montrose service to provide a crossrail service.
 
Councillors heard that the timetable needs a radical overhaul, and that this will be phase one of the improvements.

Shambles over budget cuts

Harold Wilson said a week is a long time in politics. Well, so true. We have seen funding for local authorities cut by the Scottish Government. Then we read a further £86m was being cut because of an accounting mistake, and today we read in the Press and Journal that some councils – including Aberdeen – will indeed lose out, but others won’t. And actually Aberdeenshire Council’s settlement will go up by £492,000.
 
While that is good news, it just means the cuts for us are not as bad as we feared.
 
But what a way to run a country.
 
Aberdeenshire Council is to set its own budget on 8 February, including setting the council tax rate. It’s rather challenging when we don’t know from one day to the next what’s happening.
 

Fees up, but delay over festive lights policy

We took a number of important decisions today at the Aberdeenshire Council infrastructure services committee:

A number of fees and charges will change, including increasing burial charges over two years to reduce the current £585,000 annual subsidy to £180,000 a year. Among other changes are animal licences (up by 50% in 2018, and the same again in 2019 to achieve full cost recovery); dog warden services (increases by up to 40%); and health and safety training (25% to 90% increases). Further information (see item 4) on the council website: http://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx…

There was cross-party support for progressing with improvements to the A90 north of Ellon to Toll of Birness and pursuing whether it is feasible to reopen a railway line to Ellon. The recommendations now go the transport partnership Nestrans to discuss with the Scottish Government.

I pressed the case for better cycling route provision between Portlethen and Aberdeen, particularly in the Wellington Road area at Marywell.

The much-publicised report on “festive lights and attachments to street lighting columns” is to be given further consideration. An engagement working group will review the proposals, with a new report coming to the committee on 10 May. In particular, the officers’ proposal to charge communities for electricity did not gain support.

We agreed not to decriminalise parking enforcement in Aberdeenshire. This means there will be no traffic wardens patrolling the streets, and the issuing of parking tickets will remain a police responsibility. The very high set-up costs (£287,000) would have resulted in more pressure on council budgets until it a break-even point in five years, at best.

A review is to be carried out of charges in council-operated car parks. The free tariff introduced three years ago has resulted in a £274,000 drop in income per year. In future meters will not have a credit card option – either cash in the slot or use a mobile phone. Parking meters on streets received little support as a meter machine costs between £4000 and £5000. A working group of councillors and officers will meet to make further recommendations to the committee.

Vandals leave drain uncovered

Yesterday an iron grating over a drainage gully was replaced near the railway bridge in Old Mill Road, Newtonhill. The original cover had been removed by someone and thrown over a wall.

After it had been reported to Aberdeenshire Council a large warning cone was put in place so that no-one would fall down the deep hole. Last Saturday night the cone was thrown over the wall too. A resident put it back.

So not only has the council incurred needless expense, villagers were put in danger.

I just do not understand why anyone would want to do that.

By the way, these iron gratings are so heavy it was impossible to put it back after it had been removed.

Spring opening for AWPR?

The Scottish Government is no closer to telling us when the Aberdeen bypass will open. Spring?
 
In a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s rural economy and connectivity committee this morning, the Scottish Government’s Economy Cabinet Secretary failed to provide a definitive date for the opening of the western peripheral route, which is due to be completed this winter.
Under questioning from North East MSP Mike Rumbles, the Cabinet Secretary declined to give a specific completion date for the £745 million project, claiming that the current timetable to open the road in spring 2018 was still in place.
 
Transport Scotland’s website, however, still reports that the AWPR “is expected to open in winter 2017/18”, and following an announcement in December 2016 of a year-long delay to the project the Scottish Government claimed that it would be open by spring 2018.
Mr Rumbles said: “The Cabinet Secretary’s statement today did nothing but sow confusion over the opening date for the AWPR.
“People in the North East have already seen a year-long delay to the project. If the collapse of Carillion or other factors have caused further delays then the thousands of commuters and local people eagerly waiting the road’s opening should be informed as soon as possible.
“We have been told again and again that the project was due to be completed this winter. The winter of 2017/18. The spring is only five weeks away and it seems that either incompetence or embarrassment has prevented the Scottish Government from admitting that there is still a significant amount of work to be carried out before the road can open.”     

Boost for our local ambulance

Portlethen Community Ambulance is to receive grants totalling £3000 towards the £24,000 cost of replacing the vehicle. The funding is coming from Portlethen community council. The group has also written to 60 businesses in Badentoy, however so far none has replied.

The “ambulance” – in reality an adapted minibus – is used primarily to take people to and from the medical centre. It is also available for private use and taking pensioners to lunch clubs.

Run Porty Run – which has more than 80 members – was also awarded £600 by the community council.

Other issues discussed tonight included a broken sign in the woodland park; the lack of grit bins; school rolls at Hillside (soaring); Fishermoss (steady, but below capacity) and Portlethen (falling and below capacity); doubts over the gala (only three people at the last committee meeting); litter; Hillside House fire; planning; the splendid Christmas tree, and much more.

Why switching off lights was ruled out

I was asked why doesn’t Aberdeenshire Council switch off street lights in the wee small hours to save money, given the financial squeeze facing local authorities. Good question. I asked council officers about a pilot scheme to do such a thing. Here is the answer:

Out of the six communities that were involved with the part-night switch off only two, Auchterless and Rora, remain using this switching regime; all others have reverted back to normal operation.
Community consultations were undertaken and initially there was support for the scheme in all of the communities apart from Sandend who were against the part-night switch off. After the trial Sandend reverted back to normal lighting times.
Subsequently there were community planning consultations and each time in those areas the vote was close with the majority against the scheme; these communities reverted back.
At the same time of the trial Aberdeenshire Council along with the other 32 local authorities entered into a new metering agreement with their energy supplier that changed the way we paid for energy. This change afforded very good savings in year one however it also meant that the part-night switch off would no longer afford the same savings as the cost of energy during the switch-off period halved.
The exercise itself proved that it was possible to reduce costs with minimum intervention in the street lighting network, it also highlighted points/issues that were not considered when the project was conceived. Currently all Aberdeenshire Council’s street lighting stock is being converted to LED and will be trimmed and dimmed affording savings as the energy consumed will be reduced as we will be reducing the burning hours and the kwh consumed.