The agenda and reports for Tuesday’s Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee have been published. I have had a quick scan and one item caught my attention.

The Infrastructure Service is proposing to allocate £12,000 on a feasibility and initial design work for a path from Newtonhill to Cammachmore using the existing underpass under the A92.

That’s good news, should it be approved by councillors.

Newtonhill, Muchalls and Cammachmore Community Council has been doing a lot of work in the background to have the underpass brought back into use for walkers and cyclists. It would be a major project which would benefit many folk in providing a safe route between the two communities.

Also being proposed is £20,000 on land acquisition for phase one of a path between Marywell and Portlethen, with construction in 2023/24.

The information is contained in Item 5 on the agenda: https://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=8&meetid=19928

North Kincardine Rural Community Council met by Zoom tonight.

POLICING – PC Marc Camus told the meeting about a spate of used oil thefts across the area, usually from food outlets. He also mentioned the theft of quad bikes, a caravan and equipment from rural properties.

There was also an appeal to parents about parking outside schools. This may even mean that drivers may have to park further away for safety reasons.

Police officers may be carrying out speed checks on the South Deeside Road at Maryculter where a 40mph zone was recently put in place.

STREET NAMES – The community council considered names for new streets in Chapelton. Kitson, Benton, Pablo, Ross, Lucey, Brown, McNair, Roberts, Delgaty and Jack were being suggested by the developers. Feedback will be given before the deadline of 16 May. The names come from those who have worked on the project.

These names would be the prefix part of street names and the suffix (e.g. Road, Street etc.) will be determined in line with the Aberdeenshire Council’s “Street Naming & Numbering Policy” document.

REPAIRS – Temporary repairs are to be carried out on roads in the vicinity of Cookney Hall as it will be a polling station for the council elections on 5 May.

TEMPLARS KIRKYARD – The community council is considering providing a bench in the kirkyard at Maryculter. Sources of funding are to be identified.

ELECTIONS – Monday 30 May is the deadline for anyone wishing to join the community council. There are four vacancies, including Graham Norrie and Bob McKinney whose current terms in office is coming to a close. Susan Astell has also been co-opted for the past year. If there are more nominations than places, then there will be an election on 6 June. The AGM will be face-to-face at the Corbie Hall, and in due course meetings will be in Lairhillock School. You can find out more about the community council at https://www.nkrcc.org.uk/

TRIBUTE – A long-standing member of the community council, Avril Tulloch, has died following an illness. She had been a member until last year for some 20 years. A funeral service in Avril’s memory will be held at Baldarroch Crematorium, Crathes, on Thursday 28 April. Condolences are to be sent to her family.

PLANT SALE – The annual sale and coffee morning is not to be held next month. It is hoped to revive it next year.

WANT MORE? – The next meeting will be on 16 May, which it is hoped will be the final Zoom gathering.

As well as three Aberdeenshire councillors, the meeting was attended by two Chapelton residents.

Today there were 141 patients (161 last week) in NHS Grampian hospitals who have tested positive for covid-19. One person is in intensive care (none last week). NHS Grampian says: “Trends continue to be positive this week, with a further drop in case numbers – however, this is also in the context of fewer and fewer tests being taken which means we are likely to be seeing a smaller and smaller tip of the iceberg.”

In Aberdeenshire:
• Eight more deaths were recorded in the past week linked to covid-19. The cumulative toll is 306.

• LOWER – 1638 cases were recorded in the past seven days. Previous weekly figures were: 2066, 2989, 3469, 4148, 3789, 2797, 2357, 2305, 2555, 2763, and 1203.

• DOWN – The seven day positive rate per 100,000 is 628.1, according to Public Health Scotland. Previous weeks were 728.6, 1146.2, 1330.2, 1590.6, 1452.9, 1072.6, 906.1, 882.7, 978.6, and 473.6.

• FALLING – In the past seven days 32 cases were recorded in the Netherley / Fetteresso / Catterline area, 51 in the Banchory-Devenick / Findon area, 31 in Portlethen, and 25 in Newtonhill.

Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards service has issued it latest bulletin warning of doorstep crimes and cold calling.

One resident of the Mearns recently reported that their parents had a knock at the door from a roofer despite have a ‘No Cold Caller’ sticker on their front door.

The roofer pointed out a number of ‘issues’ to the resident and claimed that it would cost £20 to repair. The elderly resident asked for time to think about these issues but the roofer ascended their ladder and started work; when he came down from his ladder he then claimed that the issues would cost a five-figure sum to remedy. Despite this, the roofer gave no breakdown for the work he claimed
needed done.

Thankfully, the elderly resident’s bank became concerned about the size of payment and did not authorise it, so no money changed hands.

Some points to remember:

• Trading Standards recommends that you shouldn’t accept offers for work from tradesmen who turn up unannounced at your door. The risk is too high that problems will arise. Find you own trader through trade bodies, personal recommendation and trusted trader internet searches.

• If you have a ‘No Cold Callers’ sticker or notice at your gate, front door etc., try to stick to that, even under pressure or persuasion by the cold caller. Remain polite, thank them for their concern and tell them that you will get someone to look at it. If necessary, tell them that you have a relative in the trade and you would prefer them to do the work or tell them that you have something on the stove/a visitor in the house and that you must attend to that urgently.

• If you decide to accept the trader’s offer, remember, you have a 14-day cancellation (cooling off) period in which you can change your mind without penalty. The exception to this is if the consumer (the resident) waives this right and allows the trader to start work beforehand. This sometimes happens when the trader pressurises or persuades the resident to do so. Please use this cooling-off period, or even some of it, to think carefully about what and who you might be committing to.

• The trader is obliged by law to provide certain information about themselves to a consumer before both parties finalise their agreement (which is a contract). This information includes the trader’s name; business address and phone number; a total price of the goods and services being provided (including tax) or how that price will be calculated (a breakdown of costs); any additional delivery charges; an estimate of how long the work will take or that the duration of the work can be extended by agreement of both parties.

• Remember, these conditions apply to other types of tradesmen calling at your door, not just roofers.

In an effort to tackle this sort of problem, Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards are
looking at the feasibility of setting up or joining a Trusted Trader scheme which will cover Aberdeenshire.

TELECARE SCAM

A message from our Housing and Building Standards Service:
We are aware of a scam being circulated in some areas which may be targeting telecare service users transitioning to digital telecare.

This scam is false phone calls to telecare services users asking them to pay for a new alarm as their current system is obsolete. Given the vulnerability of telecare service users, there is a high risk that they may provide bank details to the scammer. We suggest that you liaise with telecare service users and make them aware of this current scam.

Local prevention teams can provide a good source of support to your telecare service users, but if your staff are making calls to service users you may wish to consider including a conversation about nuisance calls. The following information may be helpful:

• People can sign up to the Telephone Preference Service for FREE either online or by calling 0345 070 0707.

• Many home phone providers offer services (some of which are free) to block unwanted calls e.g. BT Call Protect, Talk Talk’s Call Safe.

• Unwanted calls can be blocked using built-in call blocking features on home or mobile phones.

• There is a range of standalone devices that can be used to block/ monitor calls.

• For more information on potential solutions check out Which’s article on how to block nuisance calls.

When advising telecare service users about any call blocking options, it is important to ensure that they know to include their telecare service numbers in their “trusted”/ “safe” numbers.

OVERCHARGING

Trading Standards recently received a complaint from an elderly man in south Aberdeenshire who felt that he had been overcharged for heating oil, in some instances 80p per litre when the average price elsewhere was around 50p at that time. This is not a situation which has developed since the start of the recent troubles in Ukraine but has been in existence for much longer but only came to light more recently when the resident was discussing oil prices with a relative.

Trading Standards is looking into this matter.

If your heating system runs on oil, this complaint highlights the worth, particularly now, of trying to get a quote for heating oil prices before buying. One good place to start looking is the heating oil price comparison website Boilerjuice (https://www.boilerjuice.com/heating-oil-quote/) which provides quotes nationally. Once you have your quote from this site, simply do an internet search for other, possibly more local, companies to see how their quotes match up to Boilerjuice. Most heating oil companies will offer a quote service on their home page or will clearly direct potential customers to the quote page.

As with any other trader, we would recommend that you seek at least three quotes before deciding on which company to buy from, bearing in mind factors such as price, delivery timetables and payment methods.

CONTACTS

For urgent Trading Standards matters, contact Aberdeenshire Council’s Trading Standards at 01467 537222. For non-urgent enquiries, contact Consumer Advice Scotland at 0808 164 6000 or https://www.consumeradvice.scot/.

Contact Police Scotland on 999 if you need urgent police assistance or 101 for non-urgent matters.

For more information about scams visit Friends Against Scams at
https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/ or Take Five at https://takefivestopfraud.org.uk/

I have had confirmation this morning from Scottish Water that, subject to any last minute issues, Contraflow has been instructed to remove the current traffic management and open the A92 slip road into Newtonhill on Wednesday morning [tomorrow].

This is approximately 1.5 weeks ahead of the planned duration of the closure.

Scottish Water confirmed: “We hope to have this done first thing tomorrow or as soon as possible tomorrow morning.”

I see the wonderful ship on the Braehead in Newtonhill is flying new colours. I like it.

Today there were 161 patients (190 last week) in NHS Grampian hospitals who have tested positive for covid-19. No-one is in intensive care (three last week).

NHS Grampian says: “In the past week, there has been a slight increase in admissions ‘for’ covid-19 but some very early signs of a reduction in hospital onset cases. Daily occupancy was at its highest on 3 April, when we had 198 covid-19 patients in our hospitals. It has fallen slightly since, but it is too early to say if we have peaked.”

In Aberdeenshire:

• Eight more deaths were recorded in the past week linked to covid-19. The cumulative toll is 302.

• TUMBLING – 1900 cases were recorded in the past seven days. Previous weekly figures were: 2989, 3469, 4148, 3789, 2797, 2357, 2305, 2555, 2763, and 1203.

• DROPPING – The seven day positive rate per 100,000 is 728.6, according to Public Health Scotland. Previous weeks were 1146.2, 1330.2, 1590.6, 1452.9, 1072.6, 906.1, 882.7, 978.6, 473.6, and 459.0.

• FALLING – In the past seven days 37 cases were recorded in the Netherley / Fetteresso / Catterline area, 38 in the Banchory-Devenick / Findon area, 25 in Portlethen, and 30 in Newtonhill.

Kincardineshire Development Partnership’s annual general meeting in Laurencekirk included the usual formalities … plus five presentations from local groups vying for a £500 Community Cash award. By the closest of margins the recipient was Portlethen’s Jubilee Hall.

They will be installing a high-quality overhead projection and sound system to enable the hall to host training and adult learning sessions in skills such as photography, as well as hold film afternoons.

Meanwhile, KDP is looking for an enthusiastic administrator to join the team.

The ideal candidate will have the ability to ensure the smooth running of general administration including correspondence with members and the board; taking minutes; payroll and preparation of financial reports. They will also provide administrative support for the wind farm funds that KDP oversee. In addition, they will assist with research and logistical planning for events and upkeep the Facebook page and website.

The role is 10 hours a week, with an hourly rate of £12.00. The hours can be worked flexibly, although there will be occasional evening and weekend meetings and events.

For more information and a job description contact Margo at officesupport@kdp.scot

Closing date is Monday 18 April 2022.

NHS Grampian is making appointments for people aged 75 and over for a covid-19 spring booster.

However there have been some hiccups when the appointment letters were being sent out. For example, I am aware of one person in Portlethen who was given an appointment at Westhill. That has now been transferred to Portlethen Academy.

Here is what NHS Grampian has to say: “On Tuesday we became aware some citizens in Aberdeenshire had not been given appointments at their nearest clinic. Since then the vaccination team have been working hard to understand the scale of the problem.

“We want to apologise to all those affected. We’re working with the national appointing team to understand why this has happened and to take steps to prevent it happening again. This issue appears to be limited to Aberdeenshire only.

“We have already started phoning people directly to rebook their appointments. If anyone has received an appointment at a clinic that is not closest to where they stay or is not convenient to get to , they do not need to wait for us to get in touch; they can call the national helpline on 0800 030 8013 and rearrange. Letters will be going out to those affected later today to apologise and explain what they should do next.

“We want to stress that no-one in this group will be turned away from a vaccination centre. Provided they are eligible, they will receive their spring booster. Individuals are not obliged to reschedule; if the appointment they have been given suits them, they are welcome to keep it.”

I had a query this morning about paths being closed in Portlethen when Scottish Water replaces a main.

I have now heard back from Scottish Water. Here is what they have said:

“Yes there will be an alternative pedestrian route for this section of works. There is an alternative footpath accessed from both Schoolhill Rise and Clochandighter Terrace which takes pedestrians down to Cookston Road. We will make sure we have signage up prior to works starting etc.

“See the image below which hopefully shows better the footpath closures and alternative routes for sections 1 and 2 of the works.”

There is more about the work here: https://ianmollison.mycouncillor.org.uk/2022/04/05/more-water-mains-work-ahead/