Details were unveiled today about work due to start shortly on permanent repairs to potholes in Portlethen, Newtonhill and Muchalls.

The repairs should be carried out by saw cutting around the road defects to achieve a vertical edge, removing the defective road surface material, sweeping the debris, and applying a tack coat on the base and the vertical edges.
Hot bituminous material should be laid either by hand or by mechanical means and compacted using a roller. Finally, an anti-skid over-banding should be applied to all joints to prevent the ingress of surface water.

Defects that are to be repaired as part of this contract are being highlighted in yellow/white paint along the following streets.

PORTLETHEN
Berrymuir Road
Muirend Road
Rowanbank Road
Cairngrassie Drive
Hillside Road
Fern Drive
U61K service road by the A92.

NEWTONHILL
St Ternan’s Road
Elsick Place
St Michael’s Road
St Nathan’s Road
Chapel Road
Skateraw Road
Old Mill Road
St Crispin’s Road
Newtonhill Road
Cairnhill Road
C24K (A92 flyover).

MUCHALLS
Dunnyfell Road
Marine Terrace
Nethermains Road.

Hunter Construction will be carrying out the work on behalf of Aberdeenshire Council. The plan is to start in Newtonhill in three weeks, weather permitting.

North Kincardine Rural Community Council met online tonight.

Plenty of issues discussed, including missing speed signs on the South Deeside Road, pothole repairs (a number of country roads have been given attention), broadband issues, the war memorials, planning applications (including plans for housing at Leggart Terrace), a grant application from Maryculter Brownies for £150 for first aid equipment (approved), meetings will continue by Zoom, the Meikle Carewe wind farm fund discussions, and a factoring issue at Chapelton.

There was also a discussion about money available to constituted groups for projects within the Kincardine and Mearns Area. If an application for £2000 is approved by councillors tomorrow for the Maryculter Driving for the Disabled Group, the balance will be £26,478.99.

The meeting was also attended by Mel Sullivan who explained she was attending from Portlethen which will in due course have its community council revived. Finding out how an active community council was operating was a great benefit.

The next meeting is on Monday 13 December.

Along with other library and public facilities Newtonhill Library closed at the start of the pandemic. Slowly other premises have been reopening but not the village library.

I have asked council officers when progress was going to be made. Here is the answer: “Unfortunately the existing Newtonhill Library has a range of structural issues, which means it is not currently in a position for browsing.”

Officers are not in a position at this stage to project when the building will re-open.

They are looking at alternative venues for this service, which includes consideration of future facilities at the Bettridge Centre. They are also exploring other avenues currently for a click and collect service locally. Doorstep delivery may be an option for some residents in the area.

Doorstep delivery might be a better option for some in the meantime for those don’t have library facilities near by. The criteria for receiving a delivery is general. Here is the link to the form: https://www.livelifeaberdeenshire.org.uk/libraries/click-and-collect/delivery-service/

An update just in from NHS Grampian about covid-19 and the flu jags. Firstly covid. By the way, the Scottish Government concludes the next review of restrictions on 16 November.

• Cases are beginning to rise slowly across Scotland – this was expected given the relaxation of restrictions and more indoor mixing particularly in colder weather.

• The rise nationally is apparent in young people aged between 5-11 and there are signs that cases are slowing down in over 80s.

• The impact on hospital occupancy continues to be high across Scotland, despite a small reduction in admissions.

• Infection rates in Grampian have increased slightly in recent days and the picture across local authority areas is mixed, with school age cases affecting Moray and Aberdeen.

• Moray in particular has seen a steep rise in cases in the past week, driven by 4-12 year olds and adults between 30-49 years.

• Hospital occupancy for Moray residents is the highest it has been since the pandemic began.

• Booster vaccination is progressing very well across Grampian – 80% of over 70s are fully jagged.

And the winter vaccination campaign, also known as flu jags:

• Good progress in rolling out the winter vaccination programme. Almost 174,000 flu vaccinations have been done in Grampian, including 27,000 in the last seven days.

• We are nearing the completion of the 70s+ population where over 80% have had their booster (up from 71% last week). 43% of 65-69 year olds and 27% of 60-64 year olds have also now had the booster jag. The portal for the 50-59 years cohort, unpaid carers and household contacts of immunosuppressed patients opens w/c 15 November when individuals will be able to choose their own appointment and location.

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

APP/2021/2525
Date validated: 8 November 2021.
Site address: 23 Glascairn Avenue, Portlethen, AB12 4QF.
Applicant: Dr Sundari Joseph c/o Inspired Design & Development Ltd, 27 Evan Street, Stonehaven, AB39 2EQ.
Full planning permission for alterations and extension to dwellinghouse.
Public comment expiry date: 28 November.

APP/2021/2564
Date validated: 12 November 2021.
Site address: 44 Alder Drive, Portlethen, AB12 4WA.
Applicant: Mr Scott Docherty c/o Eb-Architect, 66 Argyll Place, Portlethen, AB12 4QZ.
Full planning permission for alterations and extension to dwellinghouse.
Public comment expiry date: 2 December.

APP/2021/2571
Date validated: 11 November 2021.
Site address: Land to the rear of the Bettridge Centre, Coastal Park, Newtonhill.
Applicant: EE Limited c/o Harlequin Group, Rutland House, 5 Allen Road, Livingston, EH54 6TQ.
Prior approval for Installation of 17 metre streetpole Including antennas, dishes and cabinets and ancillary development.
Public comment expiry date: 24 November.

This morning I had the honour of laying a wreath at the memorials at Banchory Devenick cemetery. Ten of us gathered there for a short service led by the Rev. David Galbraith.

A wreath was also laid on behalf of North Kincardine Rural Community Council.My ward colleagues are due to lay wreaths at similar services which are being held at Portlethen Parish Church, Maryculter Trinity Church, and at Cookney war memorial.

The following information comes from George Masson of St Ternan’s Church at Muchalls:

“There were more than 100 men killed in the First World War who had lived in the North Kincardine area. St Ternan’s is located in Cookney parish and when you stand beside that war memorial next to the now defunct church, and cast your eyes round the farm touns of the parish then count the names on the memorial and realize there are 32 of them, you realise how the parish suffered from the deaths of these men in the First World War.”

There are also memorials and tributes in Portlethen woodland park, in the Skateraw Hall in Newtonhill, and opposite the site of Muchalls station.

Network Rail will carrying out an inspection of a rail bridge at Thistle Drive, Portlethen. That means the U61K country roadfrom the rail bridge to Mill of Findon will be closed for one night between 10pm and 6am commencing Saturday 11 December.

Site notices will be erected in due course indicating the temporary restriction to traffic and the alternative route.

Aberdeenshire Council Trading Standards issued Bulletin No. 34 today, including warnings about doorstep crimes, on-line scams, and disposable vapes.

DOORSTEP CRIME

One resident in Garioch area recently had a man call at her door who offered to do some gardening for her. As she lives alone and due a medical condition, she accepted this offer. The man then did about 4 hours work, tidying up and power washing, then told the resident that the cost would be £800, which she paid partly in cash and partly by cheque. Later, after having second thoughts, the resident stopped the cheque but became fearful for her safety, should the male return.

In these circumstances (and many others) residents can contact Police Scotland on 101 (or if the incident has been reported to Trading Standards, ask the Trading Standards officer) to arrange for a Domestic Security Survey to be done on their home. A crime reduction officer will then contact the resident and make an appointment to come and survey the dwelling from the perimeter fence inwards, including the garden, any garages, sheds or greenhouses, external and internal security measures which are in place. They will then make simple, cost effective recommendations to increase the physical security of the dwelling and make the resident feel more secure at home.

If requesting through Trading Standards, all that is required of the resident to pass their details to Police Scotland is permission in writing, such as an email, signing the Trading Standards officer’s notebook or providing a hand written note to that effect.

We have also recently received reports of males going from door to door in the Turriff area, sometimes trying to sell garden gloves and sometimes simply asking for donations. Strictly speaking they should have a Pedlar’s Certificate, granted by the police to trade like this, which the males claim to have.

Trading Standards would urge caution if people like this come to your door as the goods they sell are often very overpriced and, sometimes, these types of trader also scout gardens for items which they return later for and steal. We would always suggest that you remain polite but firm and decline their offer of any goods. Keep a discreet eye on them until they leave then report the matter to Police Scotland and/or Trading Standards.

SCAMS

One resident of south Aberdeenshire went online recently to use a ‘PDF to Word’ service for converting documents. After choosing one such service he found there were a number of options available, so chose the single document option at a cost of 2 Euros.

The resident made payment and received the converted Word document but two weeks later he was alerted by a further payment of 30 Euros which had been made to the company from his account, which he queried. It was then established that buried in the small print of the conditions was a clause which authorised automatic payments for the full service every four weeks. The position of this clause was also concerning in that dependent on the monitor’s settings, that particular clause may not even be visible.

After a bit of wrangling, the resident was able to reclaim their money and cancel the automatic payments, but it would be worth bearing in mind for others who might need to use such a service as it would be all too easy to miss or overlook such payments and would not take long for a sizable cost to accumulate.

We have also received reports of scammers advertising tickets for winter festivals in the Glasgow and Cardiff areas on social media, taking payment from customers then failing to deliver the tickets, leaving the customers out of pocket.

Trading Standards urges caution when looking to book tickets like these. If looking to book tickets like this:

• On the ‘home’ page, look for the small blue dot with the white tick to the right of the company name as this shows that the page has been verified by that social medium.

• Look for information about when the page was created; genuine businesses are likely to have been established for a number of years whereas scammers’ pages will have been created recently, for that scam.

• Browse the comments made by other members of the public. If there appears to be a high percentage of comments alleging that it’s scam or dissatisfaction with the service they’ve received, then it would be best to avoid dealing with this company.

• Look for information about the company’s own website then go on to that site and look around. If the site has a number of pages which look and feel professionally designed, it’s likely to be genuine. If there is only one or two web pages, especially if they look amateurish with no ‘contact us’ information (phone numbers, company address etc.), it’s likely to be a scammer’s page.

• If in doubt: avoid, avoid, avoid.

DISPOSABLE VAPES

One topic which has been in the news a lot recently is that of disposable vapes. You may have heard them referred to as ‘geek’ or ‘elf’ bars. If you’ve seen them, you may have noticed that many of them look like highlighters pens and come in bright colours. They are one-time only e-cigarettes which cannot be customised
or refilled and are intended for disposal once the liquid within has been used up. Most retail for around £5. Clearly they’re aimed at the younger end of the market.

However, some issues with these disposable vapes are:

• Some disposable vapes are not registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
• Vapes with a tank capacity over 2ml are illegal.
• Vape liquids containing more 2% nicotine are illegal.
• Vapes sold without suitable health warnings are illegal.
• Vapes sold without an accompanying information leaflet are illegal.
• It is illegal for a business to sell vapes without being registered with the Scottish Register of Tobacco and NVP Product Retailers.
• It illegal to sell tobacco products, disposable vapes or regular e-cigarettes
to people who are under 18 years of age.
• It is illegal to sell tobacco products, disposable vapes or regular ecigarettes without a written Age Verification policy.
• Any business which wishes to sell tobacco products, disposable vapes or regular e-cigarettes must follow the Challenge 25/ Think 25 process to confirm that the customer is legally old enough to do so to avoid prosecution.

Given all of the above, there is a clear potential risk to the health of our young people. Thankfully, so far, worrying reports from around Aberdeenshire have been small in number. In an effort to start addressing this, the Scottish Government has contacted all registered sellers of e-cigarettes and disposable vapes to provide guidance similar to that above. More locally, Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards department will be building on this guidance by undertaking a programme of visits and inspections to these types of premises, to provide further guidance and to take enforcement action as required.

If you have any information about the sale of disposable vapes which concerned you, please feel free to get in touch with Aberdeenshire’s Trading Standards department using the contact information below.

CONTACTS

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/

Aberdeenshire Council Roads Service will be carrying out drainage investigation works in Muchalls from Wednesday 17 November for three days.

This means that Monduff Road will be closed at its junction with Pheppie Road and Stranathro Terrace in the interests of public safety.

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

Scottish Ministers have approved Nestrans Regional Transport Strategy 2040.

The minister for transport told the transport partnership that the “strategy fulfills the role required of a high-level document in that it describes your approach to working with your constituent councils to support the Scottish Government’s key purpose and national outcomes, the National Transport Strategy 2 and agreed regional and local transport priorities.”

Delivery of the strategy and transport improvements in the North East is a matter for Nestrans and its two constituent councils (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire).

The report includes a number of local objectives:

• Develop the principle of an Aberdeen Rapid Transit scheme, to provide express service journey times, frequency and reliability to encourage a mode shift. See indicative map.

• Confirms that a high-quality park & ride facility to the south of Aberdeen at Portlethen is still a priority.

• Upgrade existing active travel routes and develop a network of high quality and safe active travel routes across the region, focusing on the key priorities including Stonehaven to Aberdeen city centre via Chapelton, Portlethen, Cove, Altens, Torry and the South Harbour. Wherever possible routes should be segregated and road space reallocation should also be considered to allow cyclists, pedestrians and wheelers (especially those less confident and able) sufficient space.

• To work with ScotRail to develop travel plans for all rail stations in the North east to identify capacity constraints and requirements for expanded parking facilities, including Portlethen.

• The provision of improved access to the railway network by considering opportunities for additional stations, better integration of local services with InterCity services, full access for all and improved access to stations by non-car modes.

• Undertake a review of the cross-Aberdeen local rail corridor (Montrose-Aberdeen-Inverurie) and previous Crossrail business case to determine whether there remain markets that may be appropriately served by improved access to rail. Development of business cases for additional stations to enhance the viability of the local cross-Aberdeen rail service, with new stations providing access to the railway for an increasing proportion of the North east population, with delivery of additional stations where a viable business case is proven.

The meeting went on to briefly discuss the recent public consultation survey by consultants AECOM on the Aberdeen to Laurencekirk corridor. There was an “excellent response” with 1,106 online surveys completed, as well as some stakeholders emailing through a more detailed response.

This of course included questions about whether stations should reopen at Newtonhill and Cove.

AECOM and Nestrans officers are going through the results and a report will be available for the next Board meeting on 8 December.