Recipients include care homes and Scottish charity, FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland
Supporting the vulnerable, endorsing natural ingredients and championing the Scottish community, Buck & Birch launched the Wild Elderberry Elixir to boost immunity amidst the global pandemic.
Now, to mark Random Acts of Kindness Week (14th – 20th February), Buck & Birch will be teaming up with FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland and also working with local care homes, charities and more, to donate hundreds of bottles of the Elixir, ensuring it reaches those who will benefit most from its sustainably harvested herbs and spices.
FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland, which is run by the charity Move On, will receive 500 bottles of the Elixir, worth £7,500, to aid in supplying members of the community who are particularly susceptible at this time.
On top of that, Buck & Birch will continue its permanent initiative to offer a little health help to those in need, with each bottle of Wild Elderberry Elixir sold from any Buck & Birch retailer, seeing an additional one donated to frontline workers; following on from those already provided to care homes and charities for the elderly, last year.
Tom Chisholm, director of Buck & Birch, explains they are just a Scottish business who want to give something back: “For millennia elderberries have been used to minimise the risk of catching cold and flu as well as alleviating the symptoms.
“So, in response to the COVID outbreak we teamed up with Monica Wilde of Napiers the Herbalists to make our Elderberry Elixir, suitable for the whole family and the perfect, tasty way of getting your daily dose of this beneficial fruit.
“The whole point of us launching the Elixir was to help boost physical health and wellbeing, so surely the point is that it reaches those that are in need of it most?”
Jim Burns, Director of Operations of Move On explains why donations such as these are so important: “Here at FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland we take surplus product from across the food and drink industry and redistribute it to organisations that support the most vulnerable, including children, the homeless, refugees and elderly people.
“When we receive donations from the likes of Buck & Birch, it means we can provide more varied deliveries to our charity partners, who can then in turn offer a wider range of food and drink to the people they support.
“This is exceptionally important when we are in the midst of a global lockdown, when life for many, is already harder than before.”
Wild Elderberry Elixir – family food supplement — Aelder ElixirA concentrated elderberry, bramble and rosehip syrup providing a good source of Vitamin C, enhanced with sustainably harvested herbs and spices. Each 5 ml serving contains 100mg of vitamin C. Vitamin C contributes to the normal function of the immune system. Family food supplement www.aelderelixir.com
Lothian Buses has today (Friday 19 February) announced its intention to introduce new daily transport links to the NHS Lothian Vaccination Centre located at the west of the city at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston.
From Sunday (21 February), Skylink services 200, 300 and 400 will be rerouted to provide vital links direct to the Royal Highland Centre from across Edinburgh and will assist thousands of individuals as they make the essential and important journey to the Vaccination Centre located within the grounds.
Services will stop at the Ingliston Road stop every day between approximately 07:45 hours and 21:00 hours.
The company has launched a dedicated Vaccination Centre journey planning webpage where locals can find information on how to travel to NHS Lothian Vaccination Centres across Edinburgh and the Lothians.
Nigel Serafini, Interim Managing Director at Lothian Buses, said: “We are delighted to be able to support NHS Lothian with the rollout of the Covid-19 Vaccination programme by making it easier for residents across Edinburgh and the Lothians to travel to their appointments, as well as offering vital public transport links for those keyworkers and volunteers helping within the centre.
“Our teams have worked hard over the last 12 months to ensure our buses are clean, safe and accessible for those that require to make essential journeys.”
Lothian also recently announced that Lothian Country’s Service 275 will be rerouted to serve the Vaccination Centre at Pyramid’s Business Park, West Lothian, providing vital links across the region for locals attending vaccination appointments.
Information on services operating to Edinburgh Airport via Royal Highland Centre is outlined below:
Skylink 200 – Ocean Terminal <> Airport via Newhaven, Granton, Muirhouse, Drylaw, Blackhall and Clermiston.
Skylink 300 – Surgeons’ Hall <> Airport via Tollcross, Shandon, Slateford, Sighthill and Gyle Centre.
Skylink 400 – Fort Kinnaird <> Airport via Niddrie, Royal Infirmary, Gilmerton, Fairmilehead, Oxgangs, Clovenstone, Sighthill and Gyle Centre.
Scots have revealed that their local communities are growing closer, and have become more important after a year spent closer to home, however the pandemic has left society itself more divided.
The findings are revealed in PwC’s latest Future of Government research, Rethinking Levelling-Up, which also shows that Scots back the UK Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. Affordable housing, better paying jobs, skills development and vibrant high streets are seen as the key priorities for the recovery.
While 36% of Scots polled for the research said their local community has become more important to them, and 39% agree that the pandemic brought their community together, a greater number (43%) feel that it has increased social divisions.
The survey found that 51% of Scots believe inequality exists between London and other parts of the UK. Additionally, 47% said there was inequality between the four UK nations – though this was lower than reported from those polled in both Wales (50%) and Northern Ireland (58%).
Further to this, 30% of Scots said there was inequality between urban and rural areas and 34% between cities and towns.
The increased sense of community during the pandemic is reflected in where the Scottish public believe the UK Government should prioritise spending.
Better quality and more affordable housing is the top priority among Scots, with 76% of those surveyed saying it should top any Government’s spending agenda.
Behind this, 53% said helping people get access to better paying jobs was a priority, followed by investment in upskilling (47%), investing in high streets and town centres (46%), providing a better safety net for those most in need (40%) and investment in public services (39%).
The findings from Scotland largely reflect the overall picture across the UK, where the top four priorities are the same.
The survey also found that more than half of those surveyed in Scotland (60%) said they would recommend their area as a place to live, with just 11% saying they were unlikely to do so.
A similar number (61%) said their area was a good place to bring up a family, with 13% saying the opposite. The recommendation figure drops sharply however, when asked if Scotland was a good place to start a business – with 28% saying they were unlikely to recommend this.
Stewart Wilson, Government and Public Sector leader, PwC Scotland commented: “The pandemic has made enormous changes to the way we live and with the public spending more time closer to home they are clearly feeling more connected to their neighbours and local communities.
“This makes it clear that the levelling up agenda needs to be reset around local targeted investment and building community resilience to ensure the recovery is delivered fairly across the UK.
“The ‘levelling up’ agenda will need to take into account perceived inequalities across the country, and focus on areas where the public feel their lives can be improved – such as more affordable housing, better jobs and upskilling for the future. Government and private sector must collaborate to ensure society and communities move in the same direction at the same pace.”
Opportunities to build on trust
Over half of respondents nationwide (47%) hold the central government responsible for reducing geographical inequality. However, fewer than one in ten of our respondents trust that central government ‘listens to people like me’ or ‘takes my needs into account when making decisions’.
People feel greater connections with third sector community groups and charities and local government, with 29% and 25% feeling that community groups and charities respectively listen to ‘people like me’.
In Scotland, just 36% of those polled said their local community had been treated fairly by the UK Government during the pandemic, compared to more than half (53%) who said they’d been treated fairly by their employer.
During the pandemic the role of business has been under the spotlight, and business emerges with an opportunity to play a greater role in improving opportunity, social mobility and equality in the places where they operate.
Over half of respondents (55%) feel they have been treated fairly by their employers during the pandemic and 38% see businesses as most responsible for good jobs. Some 43% of respondents trust business to act to deliver a fair recovery, compared to 38% that trust central government and 40% that trust local government.
Two students have landed places in what is reckoned to be the most prized university placement programme in Scotland – working with Edinburgh-based space rocket firm Skyrora.
Bethany Taylor and David King, who were selected from more than 100 applicants, will be based at Skyrora’s production facility at Loanhead – supporting the company’s aim to help Scotland to become a key player in the UK’s space race programme.
Bethany, a Mechanical Engineering student at University of Edinburgh, and David, an Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Sheffield have joined Skyrora’s technical team – supporting manufacturing, vehicle launches and more Skyrora XL stage testing.
Both David and Bethany will play a part in assisting Skyrora to achieve its goals for 2021.
Bethany said: “I am really looking forward to learning about how the business is run and having the chance to work on different projects, using the knowledge that I have learnt at university, on real life projects within Skyrora.”
David added: “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the team at Skyrora, who are getting the UK back into space. It will be a great chance to push myself and learn from all the talented individuals who work here.”
The UK space industry now employs close to 42,000 people across the country and generates an income of nearly £15 billion every year. Scotland’s space industry is made up of 130+ companies, and it already employs more than 7,500 people.
Skyrora – through a range of important breakthroughs, including successful test launches and pioneering an eco liquid-fuel – has established itself as the UK’s leading private rocket company, supporting the burgeoning small satellite market. It aims to launch its first rocket – the Skyrora XL – from a UK site in 2023.
Skyrora’s Graduate Placement Programme is highly regarded by UK Universities as a vital pathway to help propel young engineering talent into the rapidly developing space sector.
Dr Jack James Marlow, Head of Engineering at Skyrora said: “2021 will be another important year for Skyrora as we move towards our first launch – an event that also will be of huge significance to the UK’s space industry ambitions.
“But to achieve our goal – and continue to support the focus on space as a growth sector in both Scotland and the UK – it’s vital we continue to engage with universities to forge and develop the new talent of the future.
“With 100+ applications, Skyrora’s placement programme has seen major interest from all over Europe.”
Skyrora offers technical positions for students at the start of each year, as well as summer internships.
Students interested in participating in Skyrora’s student programme or are looking for further information, please see the website for further details:
ClickView has been selected by the National e-Learning Partnership to host West OS online learning content created by schools, local authorities and RICs to support online remote learning.
To complement this learning content, ClickView is offering schools in Scotland free access to its full range of curriculum aligned video learning content, free of charge until March 31, 2021.
All schools in Scotland are encouraged to benefit from the offer
To help teachers engage students in remote learning the National e-Learning Partnership and leading video content provider, ClickView, are offering all schools across Scotland free access to their full range of dynamic, highly visual resources.
Already trusted by many Scottish schools and local authorities including Edinburgh and Inverclyde ClickView was selected to host and stream the National e-Learning Partnership’s West OS pre-recorded content, providing a secure and reliable vehicle to share a growing bank of over 1000 valuable, teacher recorded videos, with schools across Scotland.
In addition to this, the National e-Learning Partnership agreed with ClickView to offer all schools across Scotland the opportunity to have full use of its high-quality curriculum aligned content to supplement and extend the West OS provision. The three-month agreement valued at nearly £500k is currently being offered until the end of March, to support schools through lockdown.
Gayle Gorman, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, said, “Schools and practitioners are working hard to develop and deliver remote learning across the country.
“It’s fantastic that practitioners in Scotland now have free access to ClickView’s educational videos to provide additional support for the work they are doing locally at this time. Complementing the National e-Learning offer, this further strengthens the overall national offer of support for remote learning.”
Michael Wilkinson, managing director of ClickView, said, “As lockdown continues, the majority of teachers are finding it increasingly hard to motivate their students. Today’s students’ preferred format of information consumption is video.Curriculum aligned video-based learning content brings together movement and noise to convey an efficient message and capture their attention.
“ClickView and the National e-Learning Partnership encourage all schools to take up this offer to help them through the current challenges of remote learning. This doesn’t just mean learning can continue outside of physical classrooms, but provides the opportunity to revitalise traditional education practices, putting transformative world-class resources at their fingertips, for meaningful experiences at all levels of learning.”
John Stuart, workstream lead officer at the West Partnership, said, “We are delighted that West OS is hosted on ClickView because it provides the ideal platform for learners and school staff in Scotland to access on demand, high quality educational content as part of the National e-Learning Offer.
ClickView’s current offer of free access to their educational videos until the end of March, complements the continually growing bank of West OS content to provide excellent support for remote learning.”
The RCN Foundation has funded a history of nursing research project to document the stories of nurses and midwives accused of witchcraft in Scotland, as part of its programme of work to celebrate the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
The Foundation has awarded a Monica Baly Education Grant to a team of researchers from Edinburgh Napier University to investigate almost 150 witches recorded on the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft as being folk healers and midwives.
The team from the Nursing and Midwifery Subject Groups in the School of Health and Social Care, comprising of Dr Nicola Ring, Nessa McHugh and Rachel Davidson-Welch, will investigate the stories of these individual nurses and midwives, documenting who they were, and reflecting on their practices from today’s healthcare perspective.
Scotland’s Witchcraft Act was introduced in 1563 and remained law until 1736. During that time nearly 4,000 people, mainly women, were accused of witchcraft.
The accused were imprisoned and brutally tortured until they confessed their guilt – often naming other ‘witches’ in their confessions. Most of those accused are thought to have been executed as witches, being strangled and then burned at the stake, leaving no body for burial.
People were accused of being witches for many reasons- some were mentally ill, some had land and money others wanted. However, many of those accused and executed as being ‘witches’ were guilty of nothing more than helping to care for others during sickness and childbirth – they were early practitioners of midwifery and nursing.
Dr Nicola Ringsaid: “I am delighted we have been awarded funding from the RCN Foundation to investigate this over-looked part of nursing history. Telling the stories of these Scottish women and men cruelly and unfairly accused and punished for helping the sick and women in childbirth highlights the injustices these people faced.
“It supports Claire Mitchell QC and Zoe Venditozzi in their ‘Witches of Scotland’ campaign, which seeks posthumous justice – a pardon for those convicted of witchcraft, an apology for all those accused, and a national memorial dedicated to their memory.”
Deepa Korea, Director of the RCN Foundation, said: “We are very pleased to fund this project as part of our programme of work to mark the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
“This is an important project which will not only document the experiences of these early nurses and midwives and the injustices they faced but provide a fresh look at the early role and perceptions of nursing and midwifery, prior to the accepted Victorian archetype.”
Claire Mitchell QCsaid: “Zoe Venditozzi and I (Witches of Scotland) are delighted that this work is being done to investigate and record the history of Scottish women and, in particular, those who were caught up in witchcraft allegations.
“We know from our research that some of the women and men were healers – involved in folk medicine and early midwifery – who were prosecuted for witchcraft and paid with their life. This work shedding a light on this tragic history is important.”
Home sales at Artisan Real Estate’s Canonmills Garden development in Edinburgh are continuing to defy the challenges of lockdown, with almost three-quarters of all available apartments now sold.
Savvy home buyers are increasingly taking advantage of Artisan’s smart web-based technology, combined with the human touch, to enjoy the new home sales experience and make buying decisions – all whilst staying at home.
New computer-generated images just released by the developer show how one of the bedrooms in the Canonmills Garden show home can be transformed into a spectacular working from home environment, adding a touch of luxury and comfort to the ‘stay at home’ experience. And it’s a message which is delivering results with 98s ales and reservations now confirmed out of the 135 apartments available for private sale.
Canonmills Garden brings together a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments and colony-style properties which has firmly established itself as the new blueprint for post-lockdown living.
Generous and airy internal dimensions combine with large balconies and terraces overlooking private gardens and the Water of Leith – all underpinned with the latest in smart design and energy efficient technology.
Artisan’s Regional Sales Team Leader, Christie Turner believes the ‘virtual’ selling platform has been a major factor in the continued sales success at Canonmills Garden. “Artisan is an independent, niche developer which, from the start, gave us the freedom to react quickly to the challenges of lockdown,” she says.
“We have now created a strong sales proposition which reflects the challenges of our times by making our website-based visitor experience more user-friendly, introducing chat-boxes directly linked to our sales team as well as cutting-edge interactive graphics including virtual presentations and 3D apartment walk-throughs and plot-selectors.”
As well investing in new technology, Artisan has also continued to bring the human touch to the home-sales process. The developer was one of the first in Scotland to open a brand-new show home once initial lockdown restrictions were eased in the summer of 2020. The Show Home and marketing suite currently remains open despite lockdown restrictions, with enhanced personal safety measures and a pre-booking system allowing potential buyers to get a safe and uninterrupted, socially distanced real-life experience of living at Canonmills Garden.
Christie adds: “The Show Home experience at Canonmills Garden has been a hugely popular lockdown activity with almost 300 visitors passing through our doors so far.
“There’s definitely been a ‘wow factor’ as our customers experience the size and scale of the apartments for the first time. Their reaction as they walk in has been amazing – especially when they experience the light and airy living spaces for the first time, as well as the quality of the flooring and the fittings in the kitchen and bathroom.
“Buyers have quickly seen that Artisan is not your typical house-builder. The specification of Canonmills Garden is amongst the highest in Scotland, with premium Kitchens International kitchens and Victor Paris bathrooms throughout.
“Generous internal proportions and access to private gardens or balconies mean that buyers are getting tremendous value for money in a much sought-after corner of the city, close to the vibrant Stockbridge area.”
Sales at Canonmills Garden are continuing apace with two first-phase blocks now sold out, with all 72% of apartments sold off-plan. A range of apartments is still available with prices starting at £313,000.
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Three men were arrested in Edinburgh on Wednesday for drug related offences following proactive patrols in the city.
A 27-year-old man was found to be in possession of crack cocaine valued at £220 on Leith Street. He was arrested and charged with drug related offences and will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.
In an unrelated incident, a vehicle was stopped by officers on mobile patrol on Ferry Road on Wednesday evening.
A 22-year-old man was arrested and a 21-year-old man made off on foot and was arrested a short time later. Crack cocaine and cannabis with a collective value of £1,400 was recovered.
The 22-year-old man was charged with drug related offences and possession of an offensive weapon.
The 21-year-old man was charged with drug related offences, numerous road traffic offences, an obstruction offence and possession of an offensive weapon.
Both will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date for the offences committed on 17/02/21.
Approximately 2.3 million people across the UK have not received money back for flights they could not take in the last year, with many unable to fly because of national or local lockdowns or restrictions at their destination, according to new research from Which?.
Since the UK went into its first lockdown in the middle of March last year, millions of people have had flight bookings that were not cancelled by the airline, but for reasons that were often out of their control they could not take, meaning that they were not legally entitled to a refund or guaranteed a successful claim through their travel insurance or bank.
Research from the consumer champion has found that approximately 2.3 million people across the UK have been left out of pocket for flights that were not cancelled, despite circumstances often meaning they reasonably – or in some cases, legally – could not travel to their destination.
Under EU 261 regulations, passengers flying on an EU-based carrier or flying from a country in the EU are entitled to a full refund within seven days if their flight is cancelled by the operator, but the regulations do not currently offer passengers any protection if their flight is not cancelled. However, in some circumstances where passengers couldn’t travel, it could be argued that the contract between the passenger and the airline had been frustrated.
Many passengers have been prevented from travelling because of local or national lockdowns, restrictions preventing entry at their destination, or the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advising against non-essential travel.
Passengers in these circumstances would often have only been given the choice of rebooking their flight or losing their money. Rebooking may have meant paying a significant difference in fare if the new flights were more expensive, and trying to choose new dates without knowing when international travel is likely to resume again.
Of those who told Which? they didn’t get their money back, half (49%) claimed they could not travel because of national or regional lockdown restrictions instructing them to stay at home. While during the first national and local lockdowns instructions against non-essential travel were not always written into law, many passengers did not fly due to government guidance.
At the beginning of 2020, Rebekah Evans, from Barry in Wales, booked flights from Bristol to Turkey in October with Easyjet via an online travel agent, costing over £2,000.
Two weeks before their holiday, Vale of Glamorgan entered a local lockdown that was set to be reviewed the day before they were due to fly. Rebekah did not rebook the flights or accept a voucher in the hope that they would be allowed to fly if the local lockdown was lifted.
When the day arrived though, the Welsh government announced a rolling lockdown, instructing people not to leave Wales unless for emergencies. At the time, England was not in a lockdown, so the flight went ahead. Rebekah initially missed out on the opportunity to claim a voucher for the cost of her flight, but since Which? intervened, Easyjet has agreed to offer Rebekah a voucher as a gesture of goodwill.
While travel under this lockdown was not prevented by law, during the November lockdown and under the current national lockdown restrictions, all non-essential travel has been illegal. Despite this, some airlines are currently still operating flights and refusing refunds for those who cannot legally travel.
Ayesha Ellis, from Essex, had flights for her and her family booked with Ryanair to fly to Gran Canaria on February 13th 2021. These were booked almost a year earlier in March 2020, before the UK went into its first lockdown.
Despite the UK’s current lockdown preventing any non-essential travel, the flight went ahead as scheduled.
Ayesha paid more than £1,600 for her flights, but was told if she wanted to rearrange them, she would have to pay a fee of €95 per person per flight. Because the flights were booked before Ryanair dropped its flight change fee, this would have come to a total of €760 more for her family of four, plus the price difference of the new flights. Ayesha, a travel agent, has still not been refunded the £1,600 and told Which? she will never use the airline again, both personally and in her job.
Just over a quarter (27%) of those left out of pocket said they were unable to fly because of restrictions in place at their destination that would prevent them from entering the country.
Stephen Middleton, from Manchester, booked flights with Ryanair to Spain with his fiancée in July 2020, after the government allowed foreign travel again. They were due to fly in August, but paid more than £280 to move the flights to Christmas Eve after it was announced they would have to quarantine on their arrival back to the UK.
But when the time came for them to take their rearranged flight, they were again unable to travel because of restrictions at the Spanish border preventing them from entering the country. Stephen was told he could move his flights again, but would have had to pay more money to do so.
Others said they were unable to travel because the FCDO had advised against all non-essential travel to their destination, with nearly four in 10 (37%) citing this as their reason for not flying.
While those with package holidays would have had their bookings cancelled by the provider in these circumstances, entitling them to a full refund, many airlines continued to operate flights to countries with an FCDO warning against non-essential travel, on the basis that they needed to operate them as scheduled in order to facilitate essential travel.
While not illegal, travelling against FCDO advice usually invalidates travel insurance, and could potentially put your health at risk by visiting a country with high rates of infection. Additionally, many of those returning from these destinations would have also had to quarantine for two weeks after returning to the UK, with three in 10 (28%) people saying the need to quarantine prevented them from travelling.
Which? first raised the issue of people being unable to get their money back for flights they couldn’t take because of lockdown with both the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in March 2020.
While not all passengers who told Which? they hadn’t received their money back were legally prohibited from flying, the consumer champion has shared its findings with the CMA to aid its investigation into whether airlines have breached consumers’ legal rights by failing to offer cash refunds for flights they could not lawfully take because of lockdown restrictions.
Which? is advising anyone considering booking flights for this summer to wait until the situation around international travel becomes clearer, and when the time comes, to book a package holiday rather than a flight-only booking for stronger passenger protections, and only with a trusted provider that offers a generous and flexible booking policy.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“For almost a year now, Which? has been hearing from frustrated passengers who’ve been left out of pocket for flights they were unable to take, often through no fault of their own, because the flight went ahead as scheduled.
“While some have successfully been able to claim on their travel insurance or through their bank, others have been left high and dry.
“With non-essential travel currently illegal, airlines must play their part in protecting public health by ensuring no one is left out of pocket for abiding by the law and not travelling. All airlines should allow passengers the option to cancel for a full refund, as well as fee-free rebooking options, while these restrictions remain in place.”
