Fund-raising for new play equipment for Newtonhill Park is under way, with a 2018 calendar available.
Copies are available at the Bettridge Centre before this week’s Mother Goose panto performances. They were also available at the primary school Christmas Fair, but unless you are Doctor Who, that
ship has sailed!
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Portlethen Academy will be closed tomorrow (Thursday) because of the imminent high winds. This is on the the advice of the facilities management company.
Parents will be alerted by group call tomorrow and the council is using social media just now to let as many people know as possible.
Staff will be on hand to deal with young people who turn up to school in the morning.
Some residents will have their bins collected on different days over the festive period. Those affected will receive a postcard with details.
Collections due on Monday, 25 December will take place the following Friday (29 December). Those due on Tuesday, 26 December will be done the following Saturday (30 December).
Collections scheduled for Monday, 1 January will be done on Friday, 5 January and those due on Tuesday, 2 January will take place on Saturday, 6 January.
If for any reason the council is unable to collect bins on any of these days, additional bags of waste or boxes of recycling left beside the bin will also be lifted on the date of your next scheduled collection for that material.
You can check your collection date on the council’s website: http://bit.ly/BinCollections
For guidance on materials you can recycle at home using the council’s recycling services, visit http://bit.ly/ShireRecyclables
Recycling centres will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and Tuesday, 2 January. Sites which are open on Sundays will close at 4pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. For more information, see: http://bit.ly/AbshireHWRCs
To request an additional food caddy or blue-lidded wheeled bin, call 03456 081207, email waste@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or go to: http://bit.ly/Additionalbins
Given the snap of bad weather, here is information people might find useful and interesting regarding gritting and snow clearance.
More details – including a map of priority routes for gritting, the location of grit boxes and how to apply for a grit box – are available at https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/…/main…/winter-maintenance/
Grit is also available at no cost from recycling centres.
In light of comments on Facebook elsewhere I asked roads officers for confirmation that gritters were out locally according to plan. I was told that the priority gritting routes were treated as per the plan, so in Portlethen in particular the route received treatment from both 15:30 on Wednesday afternoon and 05:40 on Thursday morning. Council staff put on as much salt as they could for the pre-treatment at 15:40, and had to go out at that time, due to an early freeze time, but as this was 12-15 hours or so before the morning treatment, and following snow showers through the night, this would all have but disappeared (washed off) before the rush hour. Early morning traffic, on the roads before the morning treatment, compacted the snow on the road surface and with traffic moving slowly it took longer for the salt to take effect.
The priority routes are in essence the roads used by the services buses. If the snow and icy conditions condition the gritters then move on to the other roads.
In the meantime residents are welcome to use grit from local grit boxes (or collected from the recycling centres). However in my view the council policy on the provision of council grit boxes in communities is far too restrictive. I argued the case when the policy was reviewed not so long ago, but for whatever reason I did not receive support from fellow councillors. There should be more grit boxes so residents can help themselves and others.
I am pressing for a further review of the policy.
The Department of Culture Media & Sport provided funding to Aberdeenshire Trading Standards for call blockers to tackle the issue of nuisance calls.
There is a limited supply available for vulnerable people (such as people with dementia) who are receiving unwanted calls.
To find out if you (or someone you know) is eligible for a free call blocker to be fitted please contact trading standards: call 01467 537222 or email trading.standards@aberdeenshire.gov.uk. They will fit them for free.
Good news for local organisations. Funding worth £34,530.45 will be handed out to a range of groups at the Meikle Carewe Wind Farm Community Fund Awards on Monday 11 December at 7pm in the Bettridge Centre, Newtonhill.
Sixteen groups will be there to receive funding from RES, an independent renewable energy developer. The firm established the Meikle Carewe Windfarm Community Benefit Fund to support local groups and projects near to the wind farm. The fund is administered by Kincardineshire Development Partnership with the decisions made by representatives from five community councils.
This year’s successful applicants include Drumoak & Durris Playgroup, Drumoak Primary School Football Club, Newtonhill Community Hall Association, Newtonhill Pipe Band, Maryculter Driving for the Disabled, Maryculter Woodlands Trust, 1st Portlethen Scout Group, Portlethen & District Men’s Shed, Portlethen Moss Conservation, Stonehaven Community Radio, Stonehaven Gymnastics Club, Stonehaven Folk Festival, Stonehaven & District Men’s Shed, Stonehaven Town Partnership and Stonehaven Business Association.
A number of applicants were unsuccessful.
Last Thursday councillors agreed to set up a trust to run sport and culture services across Aberdeenshire. But this was with caution as we were unsure whether the Scottish Government would change the tax rules, thereby making the move much less attractive. Well yesterday the Scottish Government clarified matters. Sort of.
Finance secretary Derek Mackay said that leisure and cultural venues currently run by council arm’s-length bodies (known in the jargon as ALEOs) will continue to benefit from charity relief from non-domestic rates.
But he also said: “However I am aware that some councils are planning to increase the numbers of ALEOs and the number of facilities no longer paying rates. It is my intention to mitigate against this by offsetting any further charity relief benefit to councils to deter future ALEO expansion.”
So does that mean Aberdeenshire qualifies as the decision pre-dates his announcement? Or because it is not yet operating that Aberdeenshire will lose out on savings worth nearly £1m? The council is awaiting clarification from the Scottish Government.
Only two of Scotland’s local authorities do not benefit from this saving. And we are one of them.
By the way, I noticed last night that Portlethen Library has a poster up saying there is information available there about the council’s proposals.
A busy Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee today. Here are issues of local note:
– We agreed the local public holidays in the Portlethen area for 2018 will be 16 April, 9 July, and 24 September. Is this relevant to anyone any more?
– Among a tranch of grant applications we agreed to give £5000 to Newtonhill Pipe Band towards the cost of jackets and waistcoats. The pipe band will be taking 30 members to Amiens in France next year for the 100th anniversary commemoration services of World War One. Some 500 pipers will be involved. Pipe major Domhnull McLennan gave an excellent presentation.
Others receiving grants are North Kincardine Rural Community Council (£240 towards the cost of a noticeboard at Lairhillock School); Hillside Parents’ Group (£1000 towards the cost of non-fiction books and books for early readers and nursery). More applications are in the pipeline from – among others – Portlethen Community Ambulance and the Skateraw Fair.
– Repair works on a burial aisle structure in the Maryculter Old Parish Church churchyard are out to tender. Blocks have either already fallen off or are in danger of doing so. The churchyard – which is owned by the council – is near to the Maryculter House Hotel.
– Councillors agreed to hold a site visit (on 16 January) regarding a planning application for an industrial development north of West Monduff near the Newtonhill flyover. This application is for the erection of a 12 metre high workshop and storage facilities.
An interim arrangement is being put in place now that Paul Gill has resigned from his head teacher post at Banchory Devenick School to work for Shetland Council as a head teacher.
Council officers tell me that given the historic challenges in recruitment and retention of a head teacher for the school, the authority is proposing an interim shared head teacher arrangement, with Sandra McKechnie, head teacher of Portlethen Primary School, having overall leadership of both schools.
Letters have been issued to parents/carers and staff at Banchory Devenick School and Portlethen Primary School.
I am assured that Portlethen Primary School has the necessary school management capacity to provide strong and sustainable leadership in both settings, and this will be further strengthened by the appointment of a fixed term principal teacher in Banchory Devenick School, to ensure day-to-day management presence.
Officers say the interim arrangement will be put in place for the duration of school session 2017/2018 to ensure continuity and coherence in school management and improvement planning. This will also ensure adequate time to identify and implement a permanent school leadership solution for Banchory Devenick School.
Mrs McKechnie and her management team recognise the benefits for both schools through this interim arrangement and are excited by the opportunity. They look forward to meeting and working with the school community over the next few months.