Minutes of meeting - 16 January 2024

The minutes of the Community Council meeting held on Tuesday 16 January 2024 can be viewed or download by clicking here.

The next meeting will be at the Airyhall Community Centre in Countesswells Road and will follow immediately after the Annual General Meeting.

The Annual General Meeting will start at 7.00pm prompt.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Community Council will be held at the Airyhall Community Centre in Countesswells Road. The meeting will start at 7pm prompt on Tuesday 27 February 2024.

The February meeting of the Council will be held immediately after the AGM.

The Agenda for both meetings will be circulated nearer the date.

Light refreshments will be available.

Participation in PhD study request

Maren Mitchell, a PhD researcher at the University of Aberdeen, is looking for volunteers to take part in a study about "how economic transitions relating to climate impact economic, social capital and political preferences".

She would like to speak to as many people as possible, who live within the Aberdeen area, regarding thoughts about living in or coming from Aberdeen, thoughts and feelings regarding the energy transition and how this may impact either yourself or others. 

The hope is that the research can contribute to policy and advise policymakers in making the voices of those in Aberdeen and the surrounding area heard.

Interviews would be conducted at a location and time of your preference or online if this is easier and should last between 30 minutes and one hour. Should a number of people wish to participate together, Maren will can look to arrange a focus group to speak with numerous people at one time.

Participation is totally voluntary and all participants must sign a consent form, which highlights all your rights as a participant (including the right to exclude yourself from the study at any point), prior to participating. 

Click here to download the participation information pack.

Click here to download the research information

Maren can be reached by email at m.mitchell.22@abdn.ac.uk

Redundancy Event for those affected by Stewart Milne closure

On Thursday 18 January 10am-1pm  an event has been organised at Beach Ballroom to provide redundancy support for those affected by the Stewart Milne closure.  

The event will give opportunities to meet organisations who can help with next steps including: 

• Careers advice and planning your next steps
• Job search, CVs and interview skills Information on learning, training and funding for courses
• Money, pensions and benefits advice
• Support with starting your own business.
• There will also be the opportunity to meet employers with vacancies. 

The event is free and open to anyone.

Police Report - January 2024

The following report has been received from our local policing unit:

"This report covers progress we have made in dealing with your priorities for the Braeside & Mannofield Community Council over the last month. The report aims to highlight emerging issues in your area, and to provide crime prevention advice and guidance to Community Council members and residents you represent.  Our focus is to reduce crime and disorder, help create safer communities and respond effectively to local concerns.

Community Policing Priorities

Antisocial behaviour, Violence and Disorder: 

On the 9th Dec a resident of Thorngrove Avenue reported a disturbance outside in the street, several Police Units attended and the circumstances were established that a local resident was responsible. Support from other services were requested and whilst Police remained to assist for a protracted period of time, the male was eventually conveyed to an appropriate medical facility to receive help.

There were a number of calls from the residents of Macauley Drive regarding a van that was parked there. Whilst it was suspicious due to it being there for a number of days and not belonging to anyone in the street, the owner was spoken to and advised that it had broken down and she was trying to get it recovered or sell on for “spares or repair”

A resident of Hammersmith Road called and reported that overnight on 14th of December her car tyre had been damaged as a number of screws had been put into her tyre in a line. Enquiries have failed to identify any suspects for this and the victim can provide no lines of enquiry. 

2 cars had the rear window smashed overnight of the 20th December on Cranford Road and St Johns Terrace, nothing was stolen from the cars and there was no attempt to take the vehicle as such it is believed to be vandalism. The rocks that were used are unsuitable for forensic examination. There has been a CCTV trawl in the area but neither incident is captured. 

There were several items set on fire around Hutchison Terrace on the nights of 28 December which resulted in a significant Police presence. Thankfully neither of these incidents resulted in any injury and were quickly extinguished. CID took on the enquiry and 2 local youths were charged and reported to Youth Justice Management and the Procurator Fiscal regarding them.

Acquisitive Crime:

On the 12 December staff at Boots, 475 Great Western Road were alerted to a shoplifter within their store by the remotely monitored security system. A manager within the store challenged the male who became verbally aggressive to the female staff member and attempted to leave. The stock which was stolen was recovered by the staff and the male was allowed on his way. The incident was later reported and the male identified and reported for an apprehension warrant.

On the 9th of December a resident of Morningside Avenue received a call from a male pertaining to be from “scamwatch” where he tried to convince the resident that he had been alerted due to the resident having 400 illegal child abuse images on his computer and that he had to pay a fee to get the images removed. The resident was fully aware that this was a scam and played along gaining as much information as he could and then reported it to the Police.

A student residing at Rubislaw View reported that when she was at her home address over the university Xmas holidays, 4 transactions were made on her “Very” account for a variety of items ranging from clothing to a drone. The delivery address on each was across the UK. No parcels or items had been dispatched, so there was no loss.

The resident in Northcote Park reported that in mid-December the summerhouse in the rear garden was broken into. They had been away for several weeks and as such there was no possibility to establish when it occurred. A window had been removed and entry gained, with the property vandalised. There was nothing stolen from the summerhouse. House to house enquiries were carried out with negative

result. Due to being exposed to the elements Scenes of Crime enquiry was not carried out. 

Road Safety & Road Crime:

There have been several low level collisions across the Community Council area, however none of them met the requirement for Police to attend. 

There has been a significant number of calls regarding the new legislation which makes it an offence to park on the pavements. This legislation is not enforced by the Police and is a Council led issue, similarly to cars parking on double yellow lines, this is dealt with by the Community Wardens. 

Community Engagement & Reassurance

On a more light hearted note, on the 21st of December a resident of Holburn Street reported she was concerned a male was walking along Holburn Street with a Cricket Bat, officers made search for him and stopped him on Great Western Road, where it was established that he was a member of Aberdeen Cricket Club and was on route to there with some new equipment.

Contact Us

I’m sure you are all aware that at present the Westend and Hazlehead Policing Team have a number of different email addresses that the community can contact us on directly dependant on the electoral ward area, and this is replicated across the whole South Aberdeen which has resulted in 14 separate emails to the various area Policing Teams. 

To simplify the contact these have all been merged into AberdeenSouthCPT@scotland.police.uk

Emails to this address will still be dealt with by the Officers of the local policing teams, however it will hopefully make it easier for residents to get to the right area in the first instance.

• Always dial 999 in an emergency
• By phone – 101 for non-emergencies (+44 (0) 141 308 1070 if calling from out with the UK. Network charges may apply).
• Our service advisors spend a lot of time each day answering calls on matters that are not actually the responsibility of the police. Please read the Read this before you call 101 page first to ensure Police Scotland can assist with your non-emergency issue.
• Online – for issues of a non-serious nature using our Contact Us form
• In person – Find your local Police Stations and check the Public Counter opening hours
• Text Relay - 18001101 for deaf, deafened, hard of hearing or speech-impaired callers
• Support for British Sign Language users/speakers
• 0800 555 111 - Crimestoppers."

Meeting 16 January 2024 - Agenda

The next meeting of the Community Council will be a virtual meeting using the ZOOM application. It will start at 7pm prompt on Tuesday 16 January 2024. 

For access please email the Secretary at bandmcommcouncil@gmail.com

The Agenda can be viewed or downloaded by clicking here

Please note that the next meeting of the Community Council will the Annual General Meeting which will be held in the Airyhall Community Centre in Countesswells Road at 7pm on Tuesday 27th February.

The February meeting of the Community Council will take place immediately after the AGM.

ALL WELCOME