Five things you need to know today

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Royal Visit – MSPs visit Aberdeen – Midnight crash on A96 – Litter pick – School video

Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh arrives fresh from a weekend entertaining the Prime Minister and his wife at Balmoral to open a new library in Aberdeen today. They will also visit Marischal College to view Aberdeen City Council’s new headquarters.

The council have the following news about road and council office closures today:-

“Broad Street will be closed from 12.30pm until 7pm. Alternative routes are available via Littlejohn Street, West North Street, King Street and Castle Street, or Upperkirkgate, Schoolhill, Rosemount Viaduct, Union Terrace, and Union Street, or vice versa.

First Aberdeen and Stagecoach will have diversionary routes and alternative bus stops in place during the road closures.

There will be no through route for pedestrians on the Marischal College side of the road from 1.30pm. Viewing areas will be available on both sides of Broad Street. A pipe band will entertain the crowds on Broad Street from about 4pm

Some of Aberdeen City Council’s services will be affected during the event. The details are as follows:
•The Customer Contact Centre and switchboard will operate as usual on 08456 080910.
•The Customer Service Centre in Marischal College will close at noon and reception will close at 12.30pm.

The following alternative arrangements have been put in place for customers for the rest of Monday afternoon:

Social Care and Wellbeing Services from 12.30pm until 5pm
Drop-in queries and face-to-face interviews will take place on first floor of Exchequer House. Phone queries will be dealt with as normal. Call 01224 522055.

Homelessness and Housing Services
Services will continue as usual. While the Customer Service Centre is closed, homelessness services will be provided at Bon Accord Hostel at 77-79 Crown Street and at 95 Crown Street.
Phone queries will be dealt with as normal. Call 01224 522210.

Registrars
The registrar service will be closed for the afternoon of 24 September.
Normal business hours and operations will resume on morning of the 25 September.”

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Community sport facilities that have been described as ‘unrivalled’ will be showcased to MSPs from the Health and Sport Committee, as part of their inquiry into grassroots sport.

MSPs will visit Aberdeen Sports Village, a leading sport and exercise facility and host to Scotland’s first disability sports hub today.

Deputy Convener of the Health and Sport Committee Bob Doris MSP, said:

“The major sporting events of the summer have inspired communities the length and breadth of the country. Now that momentum is building for Glasgow in 2014, the Committee is looking to determine if we have the people, the facilities and the investment to support involvement in sport at the grassroots.

“Our Committee will hear from a number of local sport groups that not only get a health benefit from involvement in sport, but also a social benefit, not only for the individual but the community as a whole.”

The Committee will hear from a number of Aberdeen based sports clubs including Street Sport, Scottish Disability Sport and Aberdeen Amateur Athletics Club.

The Committee has already heard evidence from 20 organisations and had over 50 written responses from organisations up and down the country.

Member of the Committee and member for North East Scotland, Nanette Milne MSP said:

“The facilities at Aberdeen Sports Village are outstanding. As the inquiry is looking at the quality of facilities across the country, this visit will give us an understanding of what is possible.

“The inquiry will also look at the accessibility of facilities and how community groups are engaging with community sport hubs, a key part of the legacy of Glasgow 2014.”

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Three men have been taken to hospital after a midnight crash involving only the car they were travelling in on the A96 near Alford reports the BBC.

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An Aberdeen company specialising in industrial cleaning will take its expertise to the streets tomorrow for a community litter pick with Aberdeen City Council’s team of Countryside Rangers.

MITIE Cleaning and Environmental Services, based at East Tullos Industrial Estate, will join forces with the Rangers to wage war on the litter around the coast of Aberdeen, south of the Torry Battery.

The clean-up is part of MITIE’s corporate social responsibility commitment, which sees staff being offered a day to help with a community project in the local area.

The area that will be the focus of tomorrow’s event is a gem in Aberdeen’s coastline but is regularly blighted by litter. Some of it is washed in by the sea or blown in by the wind and gets trapped on the beaches. Other rubbish is left by visitors.

John Morgan, Contract Manager with MITIE, said many of the firm’s staff live in the Torry area so they will see direct benefits of their hard work.

He added: “The main thing is that we do our bit for the local community that provides us with the majority of our Aberdeen workforce. We are delighted to have the support of the Countryside Rangers for this fantastic project.”

The Countryside Rangers will be on hand to assist and offer advice.

Aberdeen City Council Countryside Officer Ian Talboys said: “We are so lucky to have such a great stretch of coast on our doorstep, an area where you can often spot dolphins and porpoises right in the harbour entrance.

“It is a shame, however, that people are not more responsible with their litter, often choosing to drop it as they walk away or dump it from their cars.

“If this litter is blown into the sea the dolphins and porpoises are likely to try and eat it mistaking it for food. A single plastic bag can kill one of these beautiful and iconic creatures. With the help of staff from MITIE we hope to reduce this risk and make the area more attractive for the local community.”

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Aberdeenshire Council have responded to an FOI request and subsequent appeal to the Information Commissioner by publishing a copy of a film about rural schools which we also show you below. The background is also explained by the council here:-

 

In September 2011, members from the Commission on Rural Education visited Aberdeenshire Council and invited officers to make a presentation on the challenges faced by large rural authorities in delivering educational provision.

To aid that presentation, officers from the council developed video footage which gave the Education Service’s view of rural school life and the situation facing Aberdeenshire’s schools and pupils.

On September 28, 2011 the Commission on Rural Education met and saw a copy of the film in full.

The film production was covered by the general filming and photography consents our schools have in place.

This issue centres on two scenes within the production which were altered only as part of an evolutionary process of it being shown to different audiences, as well as responding to a parent’s wishes under the Data Protection Act.

The film was shortened for the purpose of showing it to members of Aberdeenshire Council’s Education, Learning and Leisure Committee on October 27, 2011. In this version, a scene with a head teacher giving views on small schools was deleted.

A parent then contacted the council concerned over a pupil’s inclusion in the film and withdrew consent for the footage of the pupil to be used. This section was removed from the footage to comply with the parent’s request.

The council subsequently received a Freedom of Information request for a copy of the original DVD. The applicant was advised that the original footage had been deleted. Whilst the footage had been withdrawn from use, it was still in the possession of the Council. The person who prepared the response to the FOI supplied the information in good faith. Whilst there was no intention to mislead the applicant, it is clear that the advice given was incorrect. For that, Aberdeenshire Council unreservedly apologises.

The issues over how the information was edited and stored have raised concerns and we will address these, as well as the way we deal with FOI requests.

From an educational perspective Aberdeenshire Council, alongside other local authorities, has to take a realistic view of its school estate, the quality of teaching and environment in which our pupils learn, grow and develop. The film was intended, in its time, to provide a perspective on the challenges for a local authority in providing rural education.

We are required to comply with the decision of the Information Commissioner. (A link to the decision notice is available here)

Having carefully considered the Commissioner’s decision in detail, we have decided it is in all our best interests not to appeal the decision. Instead we will learn lessons from this experience.

It is important that we are open and transparent in our dealings and, given that we are not appealing the decision, we will comply with the instruction from the Commissioner’s office and release the copy of the film with footage of a child removed (in line with the Data Protection Act).

Film preview – Searching for Sugar Man

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We are willing to bet you that you will come out of the cinema after watching this film and head straight for the nearest music store, or download the music immediately from iTunes. The film, Searching for Sugar Man, is a documentary, but having already won the Special Jury Prize and the World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary at this year’s Sundance Festival, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, as well as winning second place at the Tribeca Festival, you know that it has to be special. And it is.

The story is true of course, but it is one which is barely believable, even when the film draws to a close. (And you will not want it to end anyway). Sixto Rodriguez, a singer songwriter of Mexican descent, lived in Detroit and sang in less than fabulous bars there, including one called The Sewer. Two record producers, Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, signed him to make his first album called Cold Fact in 1970 and a second album Coming from Reality followed which was produced by famed music producer, Steve Rowland. But neither of these amazing offerings became a hit in the US, despite the fact that all three of the record producers worked with many huge stars, both before and after working with Rodriguez. It fell to the South African market to buy his records, and he became a musical legend there. His songs, in the words of one person interviewed in the film, were ‘the soundtrack of our youth.’ This was the South Africa of apartheid, of oppression. His songs appeared to speak directly to the people at the heart of that struggle, and they simply loved him.

The music is sort of Bob Dylan but better. It is quite mellow, but with enough lyrical twists and turns to engage you. And in our view his music is better than Dylan in many respects, principally that you can understand what he is singing.

In the opening sequence of the film you might think that you are on the Pacific Highway in California, but this is not possible as the car is driving on the left hand side. It is only when you are told that it is Cape Town that you realise the film is starting on a different continent with staggeringly beautiful scenery. This proves to be a world away from the streets of Detroit.

There are some unanswered questions, including the destination of money earned from the sale of the records, but we think it is just as well that those areas were left unexplored, at least for the time being. The intrigue and mystery might easily have been compromised, and a great film spoiled. But the  team behind it knew what they were doing.

It is the work of Director, Malik Bendjelloul. Based in Stockholm, Malik Bendjelloul has been directing documentaries for twelve years, primarily based on musicians. In 2001, Bendjelloul directed the first ever documentary about German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. He has also made a documentary series about the history of heavy metal as well as some single documentaries, collaborating with such iconic artists as Björk, Sting, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Mariah Carey, U2 and Kylie Minogue. Last autumn Bendjelloul directed a filmed concert with Prince.

Bendjelloul has also worked as director and creative producer for Swedish Television’s international cultural weekly show Kobra, where he made short documentaries covering a wide range of stories. Among the subjects were the First Earth Battalion – the American army division who tried to teach their soldiers to walk through walls; and a profile on Alfred Merhan, a man who has been living in Charles de Gaulle airport for 18 years and who became the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s THE TERMINAL. Other subjects have included the controversial story of British pop band The KLF burning a million pounds, and a film exploring the rumours surrounding Paul McCartney’s death.

He had worked on Sugar Man for a long time before meeting up with the Producers Simon Chinn and John Battsek who helped complete the film. Bendejelloul said:- “In 2006, after five years making TV documentaries in Sweden, I spent six months travelling around Africa and South America looking for good stories. In Cape Town I met Stephen “Sugar” Segerman, who told me about Rodriguez. I was completely speechless – I hadn’t heard a better story in my life. This was five years ago and I have been working on this film more or less every day since then.”

The producer Simon Chinn has already won Oscars and other plaudits and you will possibly know him for his most recent films Project Nim and Man on Wire (the latter did win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance). It became Rotten Tomatoes best-reviewed film of all time.

In 2005, Chinn established his production company, Red Box Films, to produce MAN ON WIRE (taking inspiration from Philippe Petit, who kept his ideas for future projects, including his high wire walk between the Twin Towers, in a red box under his bed) and it currently has a slate of projects – including feature documentaries, feature films and television dramas – at various stages of production and development.

We loved it, and we are struggling to tell you about it in too much detail since we really do not want to spoil it for you. It is the story of Rodriguez, an American singer, his music and his life. Maybe that is all you ought to know before you storm the doors of your nearest cinema from 27 July 2012 when it is available on general release. Then sit back and prepare to be amazed by the story of a singer songwriter who was bigger than Elvis in South Africa.

Searching for Sugar Man opens in the UK today 27 July 2012.

Photo © StudioCanal

 

£122.5m to be invested in NHS Grampian

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The funding is enabling patients in the Grampian area to benefit from a £110 million emergency care centre and a £12.5 million energy centre at Foresterhill Health Campus.

The area is also benefitting from £25.7m investment in projects identified for delivery through revenue funding via the hub initiative.

These include Aberdeen Health Village (£15.5m), Woodside Health Centre (£4.7m) and Forres Health Centre (£5.5m).

The investment has been revealed to coincide with a visit by Public Health Minister Michael Matheson to the Foresterhill Health Campus and the Aberdeen Health Village.

Minister for Public Health Michael Matheson said:

“Having the right facilities, in the right place is important to people across Scotland and that is why we are determined to ensure both staff and patients the length and breadth of the country can work and be treated in the best possible surroundings.

“This significant investment in health building projects clearly sets out the strength of our commitment to the NHS in Scotland, and will mean that we can provide more sustainable, high quality and continually improving health care services close to home in Grampian and across the country.”

Graeme Smith, Director of Modernisation NHS Grampian, said:

“We’re delighted with this investment – the result of a great deal of hard work by many people in NHS Grampian and of our good working relationship with the Scottish Government. It will play a major part in modernising patient care and the facilities used to support patient care.”

The new Energy Centre will ensure that the energy needed for current and future developments on the Foresterhill Campus is available.

It is estimated that it will deliver a 17 per cent reduction in present CO2 emissions, equating to some 4500 tonnes per year and it will also return expected energy savings of around £1 million per year.

Work is underway on the new Emergency Care Centre at Foresterhill in Aberdeen, which will bring together emergency and urgent care services into one building on the Foresterhill site.

The new facility is scheduled for completion at the end of 2013.

Aberdeen Health Village will house a range of community health services, such as dentistry, radiology and sexual health services in one location and is due to open in December 2013.

MSPs decline Trump invitation

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An MSP and two Aberdeenshire councillors have declined a surprise invitation from Trump Vice president, George Sorial, to tour the Menie Estate development next week ahead of its official opening next month.

The Greens say that to date Mr Trump has invested £13m in the development, not the £750m figure that is often reported. And despite having outline consent subject to conditions in 2008, the Trump Organisation only recently applied for and got planning permission for a clubhouse, so it is only a temporary clubhouse which  is being put up.

Patrick Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow, said:-

“I will try to find the time later this summer to visit the site with local residents and see the full scale of the Trump Organisation’s destruction of this important natural asset. Sadly on the dates in question I will be working in Parliament and visiting constituents in Glasgow.”

Scottish Green Party Councillor Martin Ford said:

“The Menie dune system was an amazing and beautiful natural habitat before it was targeted for development. I have seen the damage inflicted on the Site of Special Scientific Interest when visiting local residents. This was officially sanctioned vandalism of an important nature conservation area on a horrendous
scale. I don’t have to go to Menie to see a Portacabin.”

Independent Councillor Paul Johnston said:

“The last time I spoke to George Sorial he threatened me. He has now invited me to meet him at a lonely spot on the Aberdeenshire coast. I’m not going.”

Aberdeen City Council meets 13 June 2012

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The next meeting of Aberdeen City Council will take place on 13 June 2012 at 10.30. You can read the whole agenda here.

Part of what is under discussion are the plans to turn Aberdeen into a City of Culture in 2017 which is estimated to cost just under £500,000 in salaries for the BID team alone.

One other part of the business being discussed by the recently elected council is to nominate members of various committees and boards. The nominations are as below:-

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Summer Drink Driving Campaign Week 2

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ACPOS SUMMER DRINK DRIVING CAMPAIGN – ‘THE HALF TIME SCORES ARE IN’ . . . DRINK DRIVERS ARE LOSING

 

Motorists who persist in driving after taking alcohol or drugs face being on the losing side this summer – losing their licence and perhaps their vehicle and livelihood too.

 

At the half-way stage in the ACPOS Summer Drink and Drug Driving Campaign, results show that people are still ignoring warnings and continuing to choose to drive whilst under the influence of drink or drugs.

 

Figures for the first week of the campaign (June 4 –11) show that across Scotland, 111 people have been reported for drink driving and in addition three people were detected driving whilst being unfit through alcohol with five unfit through drugs.

 

A total of 15 vehicles have been seized for consideration of forfeiture by the court.

 

In one incident in Aberdeen, a female driver crashed into two parked cars and was found to be more than four times over the legal limit. She was also charged with dangerous driving.

 

In another incident in West Lothian, a woman was found to be driving whilst nearly three times the legal limit. Her 15 year old son was a passenger in the car.

 

Chief Superintendent Derek Robertson of Lothian and Borders Police is the Road Casualty Reduction Lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. He said: “The figures are marginally down on this time last year and that is refreshing to note.  We welcome that trend and it is good to see that the number of people caught for driving whilst unfit through drugs has decreased by 60%. Hopefully the message is getting across.

 

“However it remains concerning that 111 drivers across Scotland have still opted to get behind the wheel when they are clearly incapable of driving safely. They pose a danger to other innocent road users and that is unacceptable.

 

“There are increased patrols on Scotland’s roads at present and the police are focused on catching drivers who take to the road whilst unfit through drink or drugs.

“Officers will continue with this initiative until June 18th and I would encourage the public who suspect anyone of driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs to contact the Police or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”

MSP congratulates Council on living wage move

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Kevin Stewart, SNP MSP for Aberdeen Central, has this week welcomed the City of Aberdeen Council on their introduction of the living wage of £7.20 per hour.

This comes at the end of a week where the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government and Regeneration Committee declared that they broadly support the living wage campaign to be rolled out across councils throughout Scotland.

Kevin Stewart, SNP MSP for Aberdeen Central, said:

“I am delighted that the City Of Aberdeen Council will have the living wage in their budget next week, and that they are looking to apply a provision to uprate on it year-on-year.

“It is estimated that over half a million workers in Scotland are paid earnings below the living wage. Other councils aspiring to implement this progressive step can look to the city as to how it can be achieved.

“The council elections in May present an opportunity for all the political parties to present a positive case on how they plan to improve the services in people’s daily lives. I trust that they will overwhelmingly back the SNP who will continue to work hand-in-hand with the people of Scotland to help move Scotland forward.”

Comet to support Aberdeen student

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FREE-PIC-Sports-Aid-Athlete-EM-05

Sports Aid Athlete Jonty Barron gets sponsorship from Comet electrical store, Edinburgh

Aberdeen University student, athlete Jonty (Jonathan) Barron, aged 18, from Lasswade near Edinburgh, received a cheque for £1,000 from the Edinburgh Fort Kinnaird Comet store as part of the electrical specialist’s partnership with sports charity SportsAid – helping the sports stars of tomorrow, today!

Jonty is pictured with Comet’s store manager John Taylor.

Today, Comet presented aspiring shooting star Jonty Barron with a £1,000 cheque to support his training. As part of Comet’s charity partnership with SportsAid, the electrical specialist will back 20 young talented sports people around the UK with training grants, giving them a vital boost during the defining early years of their sporting careers.

Already competing at a national level, Jonty was recently Top Junior performer in the Scottish Squad at the 2011 Scotland vs New Zealand match. Jonty will put the funding towards his training so he can reach a higher performance level and work towards the ultimate goal – representing Great Britain in an international tournament.

Picture from:  Colin Hattersley Photography
www.colinhattersley.com
colinhattersley@btinternet.com
07974 957 388

Film Review – You Say You Want A Revolution? Let’s Gdansk

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Polish Roulette – Sztos 2

Comedy

Polish with English sub-titles.

Cert 15. 105 mins

Together with rationing it is an even colder and slushier Advent in Poland 1981 as the Solidarity movement, simmering in the Gdansk shipyards, provokes the imposition of martial law. But guys still have to make a buck somehow, and dodgy deals in foreign currencies, where the Dollar reigns supreme, is a thriving business – and a very dangerous one – where the Secret Police are involved.

Meanwhile, for rough-diamond conmen/card-sharps, Sonny (Cezary Pazura) and Janek (Borys Szyc) their sleight of hand trickery remains profitable – as long as they remain alive. Conning half your money back from the Militia just after you’ve bribed them certainly compromises that intention.

Roulette -Sztos 2 is a hustle and scam grifter-buddy road movie with a morality-tale denouement sting. There are plenty of engagingly vulgar comedy set-pieces, such as Sonny and Janek entertaining two ladies of profession affection. In the giddy throes of priapic consummation, the ladies’ partner, on seeking purchase on the spinning turntable, inadvertently discovers scratch/mixing years before the bros in d’hood had a clue.

Meanwhile, as ominous tank-tracks rumble outside, Sonny rumbles something very unexpected inside Victoria’s underwear. The later ‘lock-in’ buddy booze-up scene and subsequent karaoke carnage is well-flagged, gauche in its contrivance and all the more entertaining for it.

Whilst allowing for generous slapstick comic license, Roulette/Szetos 2 sustains a pithy, non-self reverential, satirical swipe at totalitarianism’s bungling, but nonetheless, brutal suffocation set against Everyman’s struggle against the odds.

The context of Solidarity remains in the background, although one might do well to keep it in mind at journey’s end. The film’s ethos posits the theory that, more than anything, Solidarity’s eventual overthrow of Communism was not predicated on the struggle to escape the shackles of oppression. More, that eating pickled cabbage, morning, noon and night and wearing those hideous polyester flares and delta-wing rayon shirt collars was the ultimate catalyst for the Velvet (not crushed, one hopes) Revolution.

The plot, such as it is, climaxes with the guys ‘stinging’ the Secret Police out of their shady currency stash, the MO being to get them stoned on a jar of hallucinogenic canapés and hash-cakes; which they do with ambiguous success following a highly diverting Hippy-Kitsch psychedelic freak-out tableau.

Amusingly engaging with a cunning plan. Recommended.

Offshore Wind blowing into Aberdeen

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Scotland’s largest ever Offshore Wind conference will take place in Aberdeen next week bringing together more than 600 of the most influential business leaders in oil & gas and renewable energy from across the UK and Europe.

Organised by Scottish Renewables and Scottish Enterprise, the two-day event is established as a key highlight in the renewables energy calendar attracting a wide range of influential speakers, exhibitors and delegates representing the developing offshore wind sector.

Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, will give the opening address to hundreds of delegates on Tuesday.

With some of the most stretching renewable energy targets in Europe and ambitions to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of annual electricity demand renewables by 2020, Scotland is gearing up to maximise economic potential from offshore wind in the next decade and beyond, with potential for as much as £7 billion of investment and 48,000 jobs.

Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: “With more than 600 attendees and 50 exhibitors this has, in just a year, become one of the largest events in the renewables calendar. The offshore wind industry will prove to be a significant economic driver in Scotland and an event like this one is a reflection of that.

“The diversity of those exhibiting tells you this is an international industry making its home in Scotland. Companies such as Gamesa (Spain), Kongsberg (Norway) and Simatex AG (Germany), as well as home-grown businesses such as Xi Engineering and Xodus Group, are all looking to create new jobs in manufacturing, research and development and invest millions in communities across Scotland.

“Where better than Aberdeen to explore how Scotland can strengthen its presence in the offshore wind sector; a city that has built up a huge hub of skills and expertise from oil and gas which can now be transferred to help create a world-leading offshore wind industry.”

Adrian Gillespie, director of energy and low carbon technologies at Scottish Enterprise said: “Building on our long industrial heritage and offshore engineering expertise, Scotland is ideally placed to capitalise on Europe’s growing offshore wind industry right across the supply chain.

“In the last year alone in Scotland we have seen R&D investment, diversification, acquisition and collaboration all help deliver strong and steady progress towards building this exciting new industry.

“We continue to support Scottish and foreign investors who clearly understand our competitive advantage and see the potential in our offshore expertise, supportive business environment, academic excellence, and natural resources. I fully expect that the 2012 Offshore Wind and Supply Chain conference will help attract further investment and provide a forum to highlight what more can be done to accelerate growth.”

The conference and networking exhibition will include a mixture of plenary sessions, workshop style discussions, presentations and quick fire updates. It will also provide exhibiting organisations with the chance to update on their own activities in the exhibition showcase.

The Scottish Offshore Wind Conference and Exhibition will take place at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC) on Tuesday 31 January and Wednesday 1 February 2012.

For full details of the event including conference programme please visit www.scottishoffshorewind.com