Following the announcement by Nicola Sturgeon earlier this week, Fridays is excited that its fans in Scotland will be able to celebrate the continued easing of lockdown from Monday 26th April, when its eight Scottish restaurants will reopen for indoor dining across the country.
Fridays has already opened reservations for its Aberdeen Beach, Aberdeen Union Square, Braehead, Edinburgh – Castle St, Edinburgh – Fort Kinnaird, Glasgow – Buchanan St, Glasgow Fort and Silverburn locations, and is encouraging fans to pre-book their slot to avoid missing out.
Favourite Fridays dishes for Scottish fans include Fridays Sesame Chicken Strips tossed in Legendary Glaze, Fridays® Glazed Burger, Full Rack of Ultimate Ribs as well as 28 Day Aged Sirloin Steak*. All of which will be on the menu alongside sharing plates for the whole family as well as an array of appetizers and desserts to choose from.
Robert B. Cook, Fridays CEO, says: “We are beyond delighted to welcome guests back across Scotland to celebrate the easing of lockdown with us. The Fridays team have been counting down the days until they can get back to work and once again welcome guests back through our doors.
“To avoid disappointment we are asking guests to pre-book and to follow the guidelines we have at all restaurants to keep everyone safe and make sure we stay on track for the next stage of lockdown easing.”
For more details regarding the health and safety measures in place, to pre-book, menus and to find out more about the additional 29 Fridays restaurants already open for outdoor dining, please visit the Fridays website – www.tgifridays.co.uk.
Before starting to complete your application form, please take a look at our judging panel’s top tips:
Due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic, the awards ceremony will take place on Friday 1st October 2021.
We’ll be keeping you up-to-date with any further changes and developments over the coming weeks.
Now in its 15th year, the Scottish Charity Awards highlight the best, most innovative and effective charity organisations and individuals from the past year, and celebrate those who make a difference in our communities.
Categories
There are nine award categories – Charity of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Digital Citizens, Pioneering Project, Trustee of the Year, Employee of the Year, Community Action, Climate Conscious and Campaign of the Year – with the winners to be decided by a panel of judges and announced at a glittering awards ceremony on Friday 1st October 2021.
All finalists will then be entered into the running for the People’s Choice Award, giving members of the public a chance to vote for their favourite finalist to win.
The campaign outlines a series of important actions, recommendations, and guidance that four-nation Governments, NHS bodies, NHS Trusts and Boards, and Emergency Department Leadership Teams can take to ‘winter-proof’ the Urgent and Emergency Care system.
The campaign comes following the intense pressures faced by hospitals and Emergency Departments across the UK as a result of the pandemic and the gruelling winter the health service has just experienced.
Dr Katherine Henderson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said:“This year has been like no other for health care workers and Emergency Medicine staff. We have all had to adapt quickly to face the intense pressures of the pandemic and in many ways, we have changed the way we deliver care.
“Every winter our hospitals near capacity, our Emergency Departments become crowded, and staff are stretched thinly, sometimes having to administer care in corridors.
“This winter, with the severely high-risk of covid, patient safety was at the forefront of our minds. We could not have crowded Emergency Departments and we could not allow for corridor care. Prevention of hospital acquired infection, enforcing strict infection prevention control measures and social distancing were vital tools to keeping our patients and staff safe.
“Winter saw intense pressures in our Emergency Departments: the ambulances waiting to admit patients into hospital were pictured and widely reported; there were long-delays for some patients in Emergency Departments; staff severely struggled to move patients through the system; and there were huge issues with capacity. It was incredibly tough for staff and patients alike and for many, it will be unforgettable.
“Now, we are seeing a return of our community patients and demand for urgent and emergency care services is beginning to increase, as we return to ‘normal’ we cannot allow our old practices to make a comeback. Crowding and corridor care presented a huge challenge to staff and put patient safety at risk.
“We currently have an opportunity to transform the urgent and emergency care pathway. So, we are launching a new campaign, Summer to Recover: Winter-proofing Urgent and Emergency Care for 2021 outlines a series of recommendations the College is making to the four-nation Governments and NHS bodies, to NHS Trusts and Boards, and to ED Leadership Teams.
“We know there is a challenge ahead with tackling the backlog of elective care, but we must use the time we have and use the Summer to Recover and prepare our hospitals and staff for Winter 2021.
“NHS England 2021/22 priorities and operational planning guidance for the year ahead, together with the recommendations outlined in the consultation on the clinical review of standards are welcome and are aligned with the College’s own recommendations in our new campaign.
“The implementation of the metrics proposed in the consultation on the Clinical Review of Standards, particularly measuring 12-hours from arrival, are welcome and will help identify areas of improvement quicker, but without the ability to resolve these issues with adequate capacity, resources, staff or alternative care there will be little we can do in the Emergency Department.
“Expanding capacity, ensuring there is adequate alternative care that patients have access to, and working with local health systems, are all tools that will be crucial to ensuring our Emergency Departments are not crowded again.
“We have said it before; we must not let Emergency Departments become the safety-net of the system. What happens in the Emergency Department ripples throughout the hospital and the health and social care network. We must work together to prevent crowding, to maximise the safety of our patients and to reduce long and high-risk delays.
“Next Winter may seem like a long way off but to prevent another crippling winter, like the one we have just experienced, we must learn, and recognise the shortages and lack of preparation we faced and absolutely guarantee that this winter, we are ready, and we are prepared.”
A youth has been arrested and charged in connection to Operation Proust, Edinburgh City Division’s response to increased reports of anti-social behaviour aimed at public transport providers.
A 16 year old male was arrested today after he was identified following enquiries into two incident involving Lothian Buses which happened on 11th April on Princes Street and 13th April on Howden Hall Road.
He has been charged with culpable and reckless conduct, vandalism along with threatening and abusive behaviour.
The male will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.
Sergeant Grant Robertson of Howdenhall Police Station said: “We remain committed to tackling this issue and this arrest should act as a warning to others that this behaviour will not be tolerated.
“We ask parents, guardians and any person who works with young people to speak to them about the dangers and consequences associated with this reckless behaviour.
“Anyone with information regarding antisocial behaviour in their area can contact Police Scotland through 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111”
Giving up smoking is not something you have to do on your own!
Contact Quit Your Way for free advice and support to help stub out the addiction. With specialist support and medication you are 4 times more likely to be successful in quitting.
Visit tinyurl.com/qywlothian and self-refer through the green “click to be contacted” button.
I think we can all agree the last 12 months have been challenging in so many ways, for people and businesses alike. But one of the most heart-warming parts since the first lockdown was announced has been seeing how many people have pulled together to help those in need.
New research by thortful.com has shown that people are now looking to give back. thortful analysed Google Trends data since the start of the first lockdown and found that there has been a huge increase in terms like ‘care packages for friends’ and ‘care package ideas’ seeing a 3350% and 250% increase in the last 12 months.
Businesses are also looking to show their appreciation to loyal customers who have continued to support them during these uncertain times, with the search term ‘thank you business cards’ seeing a 400% increase in the last 12 months.
Interestingly, search terms like ‘thank you for your order cards’ and ‘thank you for your purchase cards’ are two breakout queries, indicating this is a growing trend and that businesses want to give back to their customer base.
People’s willingness to give back was also seen during the Mother’s Day period when people donated to thortful’s NHS Charities Together campaign, which raised £130,126.50 for NHS Charities. Thanks to their customers, they were able to smash their target of raising £110,000. .
thortful became the official card company sponsor of the NHS Charities Together during the Mother’s Day period (15th February – 14th March), and pledged £110,000 to NHS Charities Together.
During this period, 5p for every Mother’s Day card sold and £5 from every Rainbow bouquet bought was donated by thortful directly to NHSCT. thortful smashed their target on 15th March 2021 with the total figure now at £130,126.50.
Commenting on the initiative, a thortful spokesperson explained: “It’s great to see how generous and altruistic people have been during this time.
“We are so grateful to all our wonderful customers for helping us raise this huge amount of money. We wanted to show our support and gratitude for all of the NHS staff who have worked tirelessly during the pandemic.”
PureGym expects 120,000 workouts in Scotland over the course of next week
PureGym, the UK’s largest gym operator, is delighted to be re-opening its 25 clubs in Scotland on Monday 26th April, bringing back affordable fitness to the nation. This follows the successful re-opening of its gyms across England in mid-April, which saw over 1 million workouts at its clubs in the first week alone.
The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of maintaining peoples’ health and wellbeing and that gyms are essential community facilities. Gyms have a vital role to play in improving the health of the nation and our members have been hugely excited to get back into their fitness routines, as demonstrated by the strong demand seen in England when PureGym welcomed back members last week.
As well as re-opening its 230 clubs in England last week the business opened 10 brand new sites, demonstrating its commitment to UK expansion at a time when many leisure and retail businesses are shrinking their estates, especially on the high street.
PureGym has ambitions to further increase its gym estate across the UK and have an important role to play in sustaining vibrant high streets as they adapt to new uses. A typical PureGym has 3,000-5,000 members who visit day and night, bringing much needed footfall to the immediate vicinity.
PureGym’s 25 Scottish gyms will re-open under the now well-established TrainSafe protocols which were developed and instigated last year, following close consultation with the gym industry, and are compliant with all Scottish Government Guidelines and the health authorities.
When PureGym was open last year these protocols, which include social distancing, a highly sanitised training environment and controlled access and numbers to ensure social distancing in its already spacious facilities, ensured very low levels of Covid-19 cases in gyms.
There was little or no evidence to suggest the virus was being caught or transmitted in PureGym clubs thanks to the consistent implementation of these procedures which were reviewed hundreds of times by EHOs last year.
Rebecca Passmore, UK Managing Director of PureGym, commented: “After 18 weeks of closure we are absolutely thrilled to be opening up our gyms in Scotland on Monday and expect 120,000 workouts over the course of next week.
“The lockdown has been incredibly tough both for our members and our passionate teams. We have 25 clubs with 105,000 members in Scotland and we know how much they have missed the gym these past few months.
“I know I speak for the whole team in saying we are so excited to be welcoming them back. For millions of people going to the gym is an essential part of their daily health and wellbeing routine and we are committed to ensuring it is a safe and enjoyable experience enabling people to be fitter, healthier and happier.
“We know there is huge appetite to return to the gym in Scotland, both amongst our existing members and the broader population as people want to resume active lifestyles to manage their physical and mental wellbeing. Gyms are great additions to the high street and retail parks and we look forward to welcoming new members and opening more sites as the year progresses.”
Sir Chris Hoy, PureGym Ambassador and Scotland’s 6x Gold Olympian, said: “The pandemic has demonstrated the importance of exercise in protecting the nation’s physical and mental well-being and during this health crisis we have sorely missed the crucial role that gyms play in peoples’ daily routines.
“PureGym’s flexible and affordable proposition makes the gym accessible to everyone – now more than ever gyms will help our society continue to recover and will be vital in the long-term health of our nation.”
Join us at Collective for a weekend of free, socially distanced, outdoor play and crafty activities for local families and under 12s.
Taking inspiration from Christian Newby’s new large-scale textile work in the City Dome, Collective Play: Warp/Weft invites children and families to take part in creative play and fibre art activities across the site!
Throughout the weekend:
Try your hand at weaving with artist and maker Rhona Jack as the City Observatory pillars become a giant loom!
Claim your free fibre craft and play pack, designed by Rhona with everything you’ll need to make your own tapestries using recycled materials
Visit Christian Newby’s exhibition, Boredom>Mischief>Fantasy >Radicalism>Fantasy: learn about the tools Christian used to create his textile work, and see how many different motifs you can spot in the tapestry
Collective PLAY: Warp/Weft is free, donations welcome, but booking either a morning or afternoon slot via Eventbrite is required.
Every care has been taken when organising this event to ensure the safety of visitors, staff, and to adhere to COVID-19 government guidelines:
Pre-booked tickets for a morning or afternoon session will allow us to maintain a safe number of visitors to Collective Play at all times.
Materials packs have been carefully packaged using sanitised hands and will be yours to keep after the event.
Children and adults will be asked to sanitise their hands before taking part in the giant weaving activity, and numbers will be limited to ensure social distancing.
All play will take place outdoors. Collective is based in a large public park, Calton Hill and, after taking part in the on-site activities, we encourage families to take their materials packs out into the park to explore.
Tickets are limited and previous events have sold out so early booking is recommended – all details and booking link are on our website here:
Rhona Jack is a multi-disciplinary artist, living and working in Dundee, whose practice is formed by a combination of sculpture and fibre art, often blurring the lines between art, craft and design.
She graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in 2017 and is currently a Committee Member of GENERATORprojects.
Recent exhibitions include ‘Wear and Tear’ (Nomas* Projects, Dundee, 2021), ’Women in Print’ (Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, 2020), Platform (City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 2020), Reduct (Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2020), Satellite (Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2018), Inside:Outside and An Isolated Process (both MERZ Gallery, Sanquhar, 2020).
Over 100 organisations from across Scotland have today written to the leaders of Scotland’s political parties, urging them to commit to a radical extension of free bus travel, in a move that they say would have a transformative impact on the lives of people across Scotland’s communities.
The call has been made as part of the Poverty Alliance’s Everyone Aboard campaign, which asks for their support in extending fre bus travel to under 25s and people on Universal Credit and other low-income benefits.
The coalition of organisations – coordinated by the Poverty Alliance and including Friends of the Earth Scotland, the Scottish Youth Parliament and Barnardo’s Scotland – are making the call at a time of growing poverty in Scotland, with recent Scottish Government statistics showing over 1 million people in Scotland are now living in the grip of poverty.
Bus travel will, the letter states, be critical in stemming the rising tide of pandemic-related youth unemployment, with bus travel particularly important for young people and people on low incomes to help them access the labour market. Without this action, the organisations have warned, they “risk being left behind in our economic and social recovery.”
Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance, said: “We are calling on the leaders of Scotland’s political parties to take the bold, far-reaching action to help loosen the grip of poverty on people’s lives. Removing the barrier to transport would be a significant step towards building a Scotland where everyone is included, no matter their income.
“This move would also help advance gender equality, as women disproportionately rely on public transport to access jobs, healthcare and activities to boost their wellbeing.
“Lone parents, who are predominantly women, would particularly benefit. Expanding the use of public transport will play an important role in reducing Scotland’s emissions and responding to the climate emergency.
“Extending free bus travel is a key way the next Scottish Government can help make Scotland a greener and more just place for us all to live.”
Mollie McGoran MSYP, Trustee of the Scottish Youth Parliament, said: “Young people and people on low incomes have been some of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and so must be put at the heart of the recovery.
“That’s why we support the aims of the Poverty Alliance’s Everyone Aboard campaign to provide free bus travel for young people and people on low incomes in Scotland.
“We believe that Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government should provide funding to support initiatives which make it easier, cheaper, and safer for young people to use active and sustainable travel options.
“Our 2018 national campaign All Aboard found young people feel bus fares are too high. The cost of public transport creates barriers to participation which are denying young people and those on low incomes access to opportunities, and this proposal would be a great step in the right direction.”
Gavin Thomson, Air Pollution Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “Transport is the biggest emitting sector in Scotland. To meet our climate change targets, bold action must be taken to promote cleaner forms of travel, like public transport, and lead a just transition away from fossil fuel private car use.
“Extending free bus travel to all young people under 25 and those on Universal Credit will form an important part of the solution and help ensure no one is left behind as we transform our transport system.
“The upcoming Scottish Parliament election provides political parties an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to tackling climate change. We must seize it.”
Vague and costly recommendations are not enough to reboot aviation and tourism sectors facing another summer without international travel, says Westminster’s Transport Committee.
In an analysis of the Government’s Global Travel Taskforce Report, the Committee concludes that the Report sets out a framework without the detail required to restart international travel. Where detail is provided, the costs may be disproportionate to the risk and add £500 on to the cost of a family of four travelling to the safest parts of the globe where the vaccine roll-out is comparable to the UK.
This distinct lack of clarity does not offer confidence to industry or consumers to plan, invest or recover from the coronavirus pandemic. It leaves the planned safe restart of international travel on May 17 in jeopardy.
The UK’s aviation and tourism sectors were poised to accommodate the public’s desire to travel for business, study, holidays and to visit loved-ones. The UK [aviation industry] has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, according to the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. Another summer without international travel heralds significant economic adversity.
Recommendations
In its Report, the Committee sets out four clear recommended actions for Government:
Populate the traffic-light framework with destination countries by May 1 and announce the details in a statement to Parliament.
Explain the criteria and mechanism by which countries will move between risk categories by May 1.
Offer an affordable testing regime that supports public health and safe travel for everyone by maximising the role of lateral flow tests and ensuring the provision of affordable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, where required.
Act immediately to reduce waiting times and queues at the UK border, including working bilaterally with partner countries to agree mutual recognition of travel health certification, deploying more staff at the border, processing passenger locator forms before passengers arrive in the UK and establishing an efficient system based on a single digital app to process health certification submitted in a range of languages.
Transport Committee Chair, Huw Merriman MP, said: “The aviation and travel sectors were crying out for a functional report, setting out clear rules and offering certainty. This is not it.
“Where the industry craved certainty, the Government has failed to provide it. For UK citizens seeking to travel to the parts of the globe where the vaccine has been delivered as rapidly as the UK, the cost to families from testing could be greater than the cost of the flights.
“This is a missed opportunity for the Government to capitalise on the UK’s world-leading ‘vaccine dividend’. How can it be right that hauliers, arriving from parts of the globe where the vaccine roll-out is slow, are able to use cheaper lateral flow testing whilst a trip back from Israel requires a PCR test which is four times as expensive?
“This was an opportunity to provide a global lead with standardised rules on international health certification and promoting app-based technology, making the processes at borders more secure and less time consuming. The urgent situation facing the aviation and travel sectors warrants a clear action plan to green light our travel – and the Government must urgently set it out.”
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:“The government is reliant on factors outside its control in restarting international travel, including high and changing infection rates in many countries, so it’s understandable that it cannot provide clarity on where people can go yet. However, it needs to do a better job of fixing the issues it does control.
“Given the government has now dropped its advice not to book holidays, consumers need clarity on how the traffic light system will work and reassurance that last-minute changes won’t leave them facing thousand pound bills – as they did last summer.
“Test costs remain too high and risk pricing millions out of travel, while the problem of passengers queuing for several hours at border control at some UK airports has been going on for months.
“If people are to travel this summer, whether to see loved ones or on holiday, they need the government to make sure it is affordable and safe.”
