Changes to mini recycling points

From 31 July Aberdeenshire Council’s mini recycling points will only be for glass and textiles, as these materials should not go in household blue-lidded recycling bins.
One of the main benefits from the removal of other containers will be substantially less vehicle usage, which will save money and cut carbon emissions. It will also help prevent the misuse of mini-recycling points for the disposal of trade waste.
Another issue has been contamination, such as bottles and non-recyclable materials (e.g. polystyrene) being dumped in cardboard containers. I have attached a picture taken at the cardboard skip at Tesco tonight. It contains two car booster seats, polystyrene and goodness knows what else. What a waste of time and money.
If anyone needs more blue-lidded bins these will be supplied at no cost. Of course large amounts of, say, cardboard can be taken to a recycling centre.
The changes will save the council around £400,000 a year.
The changes have already been implemented at the Asda car park in Portlethen, following the opening of the Badentoy centre.
There are more details at: https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/apps/news/release.aspx?newsid=4737

The cardboard skip at the Tesco car park in Newtonhill

Blairs school rezoning consultation starts

The Blairs rezoning consultation – which proposes to formalise the secondary school catchment area for pupils living in the new housing development on the South Deeside Road – will run from 28 June until 29 September.

It is proposed that the pupils living in the Blairs development will attend Lairhillock for primary education and from August 2018 will go to Mackie Academy for secondary education.

This was prompted by the decision by Aberdeen City Council to remove the Blairs development from the Cults Academy catchment. A copy of the consultation report detailing the decision of Aberdeen City Council can be found at http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/…/CST_Cults_Academy_Rezoning… 
A public meeting will take place on 7 September at Arduthie School in Stonehaven at 7pm.

Any written comments on the proposals must be received by Aberdeenshire Council by 29 September for them to be taken into account. An online survey will be available from tomorrow (29 June) at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BlairsRezoning.

Bus punctuality falling

Some interesting points from reports to yesterday’s meeting of Nestrans, the North East transport partnership between local councils, planners and industry.

The proposed park and ride north of Portlethen n the A90 has planning permission, but Transport Scotland is not able to contribute towards the cost at this time. The report says Aberdeenshire Council officers are looking at the options around funding and intend to bring back a report to appropriate committee as part of the overall consideration of the capital planing process in the next three to six months.

Bus punctuality is getting worse, with 84% of Stagecoach services starting their route on time in 2016 compared to 89% in 2010. Some 99.7% of services run, down 0.2% in six years. Meanwhile First’s punctuality and reliability has improved to 95% and 99.8% respectively.

Rail usage in the North East dropped to 5,579,000 in 2015/16 from a high of 6,033,000 the previous year. This was in contrast to a continuing rising patronage across Scotland to 186,718,000. Portlethen station was used in 2015/16 by 56,324 people, down roughly 800 on the previous year. In 2020/11 the station was used by 18,382 people.

Sports hub plans ahead

An encouraging meeting of the Portlethen Sports Hub tonight in the academy. Represented tonight were netball, badminton, Jazzercise, running, and Rebel PT.

Plans are in place for the hub to take part in the gala on 19 August. A greater presence on social media is under way. Other activities are also in the pipeline, including the possibility of a 10k run in the town.

All sports clubs in the Portlethen area are welcome to join in hub meetings.

Changes to bus timetables

Stagecoach is planning timetable changes to the Aberdeen / Dundee / Perth X7 services from Monday 3 July, including the introduction of an X8 service on the Arbroath / Perth leg of the journey.
The X7 already operates hourly every day between Perth and Aberdeen. I’m told that there are some changes in the new timetable, so regular users would be advised to check if it will affect them: https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/East%20Scotland/Strathtay/ESCOT_Strathtay_X7.pdf
Acting general manager for Stagecoach East Scotland, Jon Oakey said: “The Coastrider X7 route has been very popular since its launch in 2011 and we’ve added extra journeys as the route has grown over the years.  The launch of route X8 will increase the frequency of journeys between Perth and Arbroath as well as providing an alternative option for customers who may struggle with the stairs on the X7 luxury coaches.
A new timetable booklet which includes the full X7 journeys as well as a combined timetable for all journeys between Perth and Arbroath on X7 and X8 is now available in travel shops, on bus and to download at stagecoachbus.com.
The Coastrider X7 route was launched in 2011, with eight new coaches introduced to operate on the route in November 2014, representing an investment of over £2.4m. A further £300k was spent on an additional coach required to maintain the higher frequency on the service

Warning of road closure

Lightways Contractors will be carrying out road surfacing repairs on behalf of Aberdeenshire Council’s roads section on the U58K Duffshill Road north of Hillside.

This work will last for four days commencing on Monday 17 July.

Council officers assure me that emergency and pedestrian access will be maintained, and that vehicular access to affected properties will be maintained whenever possible.

Remedial work planned for schools

The Evening Express reports tonight that some remedial work is to be carried out on a number of Aberdeenshire schools – including Portlethen Academy – following checks prompted by the Edinburgh tragedy when a wall fell down resulting in the death of a pupil.
Back in April councillors were told by council officers that while “some remediation works will be required to the schools listed below, we would stress that our engineers have advised that there is no immediate safety risk.”
The schools listed were Banff Primary, Hill of Banchory Primary, Kintore Primary, Longside Primary, Meldrum Academy, Oldmeldrum Primary, Portlethen Academy, Rosehearty Primary, and Rothienorman Primary.
Intrusive surveys were undertaken at Hill of Banchory, Kintore, and Longside primary schools, and Meldrum and Portlethen academies.
On Thursday there will be a report to full council, which is what prompted the Evening Express coverage. Included in that report is an assurance from the company responsible that there is no immediate threat to the users of the schools or the general public.
The remediation works are to be carried out in the summer holiday period, at no cost to the council. No details of the programme have been shared as yet.
I was asked if the remedial work at the academy during the school holidays would impact on the Portlethen Gala on 19 August. Here is the response I received from Allan Whyte, Aberdeenshire Council’s head of property and facilities management: “I shall ensure that the programme of any remedial works to Portlethen Academy will not impact on the town gala.”
The report can be viewed on the council website (item 9) at http://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=1&meetid=18729