Category: North Edinburgh News

Countdown to lower drink-drive limit

Campaign launched to highlight proposed change on 5 December

drink and driveA high-profile public information campaign to ensure Scotland is ready for a new lower drink drive limit has been launched at the start of Road Safety Week. The Scottish Parliament votes today on an order which will bring the reduced limit into effect on 5 December.

This would lower the blood alcohol limit from 80mg in every 100ml of blood to 50mg in every 100ml of blood.

The campaign includes:

  • TV, video-on-demand and radio adverts across Scotland, including ITV Borders which covers areas south of the border. The campaign message is ‘the best advice is none’ when it comes to drinking and driving
  • Digital and social media campaign backed by www.dontriskit.info website
  • Scotland-wide awareness raising events in high footfall public venues such as supermarkets
  • Working with key transport hubs such as Edinburgh airport and car hire companies (Enterprise)
  • Awareness raising through Visit Scotland, tourist organisations and driving tourism agencies
  • Highlighting the new lower limit via electronic road signs across Scotland, particularly on key border roads between England and Scotland
  • Partner work with service stations, including all Tesco and all Shell-owned garages, this includes key border areas in Dumfries, Abington, Jedburgh and Berwick- upon- Tweed
  • Issuing information through alcohol retailers, national pub companies and groups such as Scottish Retail Consortium, Scottish Grocer Federation and DrinkAware
  • Partnering with key motoring organisations including the Institute of Advanced Motoring, AA, RoSPA and Brake

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “With the approval of Parliament, the new drink drive limit will come into force on December 5, making our roads safer and saving lives. We are doing everything we can to make sure everyone is informed about the new lower level.

“A persistent minority of people are still getting behind the wheel after drinking – that is unacceptable, it is putting lives at risk and it must stop. Our advice is simple, the best approach is to have no alcohol at all. Alcohol at any level impairs driving.

“This new law will bring Scotland into line with most of Europe and hopefully reduce drink drive arrests and prosecutions, as we have already seen in the Republic of Ireland, where drivers adjusted their behaviour to take account of the lower limit.”

Chief Superintendent Iain Murray, Head of Roads Policing for Police Scotland said: “An average of 20 die on Scotland’s roads each year and last year a further 90 were seriously injured and 340 slightly injured as a result of drink driving related collisions.

“The new lower limit will reduce those numbers and the evidence from across Europe where the lower limit applies suggests we will see reductions in drink driving and blood alcohol counts.

“However even at the new limit you are three times more likely to die in a crash than if you had taken no alcohol. It is clear, when it comes to drinking and driving, that the simple ‘the best advice is none’ message is the right one.

“On the lead up to 5 December police patrols will positively engage with as many road users as possible to provide real-time education to those who may be putting themselves and others at risk, influence behaviour in the future and prevent collisions on Scotland’s roads.”

Paul Bassett, General Manager, South East Division, Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “All too often our ambulance crews have to deal with the tragic consequences of drink driving, which have a devastating impact on families and communities. The message is clear and we hope this initiative will reduce the number of lives that are ruined as a result of drink driving.”

Michael McDonnell, Director of Road Safety Scotland, said: “It’s almost 50 years since the current limit was introduced and that we still lose an average of 20 lives a year is a disgrace.

“Evidence from across the world demonstrates that the best results in tackling drink-driving are achieved by lowering the limit, or increasing enforcement, or both. We know, too, that a combination of high-profile enforcement, coupled with a heavyweight media campaign is the most efficient use of resources, and we are working closely with the Police Scotland and other partners to ensure that people know about the change to the limit and have no excuse.

“It’s not about catching more drink-drivers, but about preventing people from doing it in the first place. Ultimately, most of us have too much to lose, so it’s just not worth the risk.”

A happy New Year for hospital food?

New hospital food guidelines to be published in January

hospital_foodImproved standards for hospital nutrition and catering are to be introduced, and the Scottish Government will consult on making them legally binding, Health Secretary Alex Neal has announced. The improvements are part of a package of measures being introduced to build on the progress already made to improve standards of nutritional care in Scottish hospitals.

The measures announced yesterday are:

• Improved nutrition and catering standards introduced in the new year, supported by increased inspections of hospital meals
• A consultation to determine whether nutritional standards in hospitals should be placed on a statutory footing
• A further £300,000 will be invested to help boards to improve nutritional care

Scotland was the first country in the UK to introduce national standards for food, fluid and nutrition in hospitals. Since 2008 more than £1.75 million has been invested to improve standards of nutritional care, including supporting nutritional champions, malnutrition screening of all patients when they are admitted to hospital, and the introduction of protected mealtimes to ensure patients get the help they need to eat.

Continuing improvements to hospital food are part of the Scottish Government’s 2025 vision to make Scotland a Good Food Nation.

Health Secretary Alex Neil said: “Scotland has led the way in the UK when it comes to developing and monitoring standards for nutritional care and catering in hospitals. We already have rigorous standards in place, and clear guidance about how these standards can be met. Catering teams, dieticians, specialist consultants and nursing staff are doing great work to ensure that patients are getting nutritious and balanced diets in hospital.

“We have made great progress, but I recognise that there is always more that can be done to drive up standards.

“We have been working on these new guidelines for some time as part of an ongoing review of nutritional standards. This is part of a package of measures that will help to ensure that hospital food continues to improve, that NHS boards have the appropriate amount of support and advice that they need to deliver these improvements and that we have an even stronger inspection process.”

As part of the new standards, there will be a move away from self reporting, whereby hospital boards submit evidence about how their meals meet nutritional guidelines

Full details of the new guidelines will be published in January, and, if agreed, Scotland would be the first country in the UK to place nutritional standards in hospital food on a statutory footing.

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and health spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, has welcomed the proposals. She said: “It’s good to see the Scottish Government waking up to this important issue. I would encourage every health board to listen carefully to the feedback from patients and relatives to help improve hospital meals.

“I await with interest the new guidelines, and I urge ministers to raise their ambitions for the quality of food served in our hospitals. We should take this opportunity to focus on using more local and fresh ingredients, and we should continually involve patients in a review of the menus.”

Still caring …

Muirhouse Millennium Centre’s JAMES McGINTY reports on North West Carers annual general meeting,  which took place last week …

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Ian Huggin (Chairperson, above centre) welcomed everyone to the AGM, and introduced all members of the board to the audience.

Ian stated he was especially grateful to many who had helped the Carers during the last year to steer the finances to a strong position as they go forward to next year. Concern was raised as to the future funding of the Young Carers and, as treasurer Eddie Thorn explained, funding was difficult for all concerned.

Many of the Directors gave a huge thank you to their main funder, the City of Edinburgh Council, for their continued support not only financially, but from the Commissioners during a difficult period.

A very personal, human story from speaker Gordon told why he had found the project such a great support.

A video shown by Marcia showed the Young carers at a weekend respite camp enjoying a disco, fun park and a concert which included the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. She explained the work that N.W.C.C. did with them, and what the young people did as Carers.

Project manager Angela Diaz gave a brief report of the partnerships involved with the N.W.C..C project, and praised her staff and board for their industry & commitment during the last year.

Minutes of the last A..G.M. were approved and seconded as an accurate report.

Fiona Drinna and Linda Paterson were elected to the Board; Margaret Robertson retired and stood down from the board and was presented with a floral arrangement by staff.

Finally, the Young Carers performed a spirited song and dance routine, much to the delight of the audience (below). Roll on next year for this excellent project!

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Words & pictures by James McGinty

AARG! Exciting news from Auld Reekie Roller GIrls!

Change of season for city team now world-ranked 60!

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We are excited to announce that the Auld Reekie Roller Girls Intraleague Home Season for 2015 is being held at a new time!

As our loyal fans will know, for the past three years we have run our Home Season from January – April. However, 2014 has seen our league take on a lot of new directions as we continue to grow, not only in number but in standing in the roller derby world.

In the past year, we have gone from being ranked #103 with WFTDA to being #60 in the world. That’s right, our wee Scottish team are the 60th best in the WORLD!

We are super proud of what we have achieved. We plan to continue this until we are #1, so we’ve made some changes and moved some things around – and that includes our Home Season!

So, exciting … we will now have our Home Season from September – November 2015!  Keep a look out for dates which will be announced later next year.

Because this means we have a whole batch of amazing new rookie skaters who are having to wait a little bit longer to show off their skills in public, we are super excited to announce that we will be holding our first ever InARRGuration game on 30 November!

This is a closed game – friends and family of skaters only – but our whole league will be out in force to cheer on our new guys! The skaters who are making ARRG history have been teamed up as follows:

TEAM GREEN:

Bruiser Black #369, CirqueduSlay #23, Comet Sans #88, emKa#17, Harlot Bronte #303, Hex #71, Klara #14, Lannthrax#92 (guest – New Town Roller Girls), Major Vengeance #1984, Pummela#321, Shamonster#123, Trojan Virus #526, McSpeedy#145, Rage More #96, Bench – Chasing Katy. LUM –BintImperial

TEAM BLACK:

Bacon Roll #4, Ba Humbug #0131, Bunsen BurnHer #61, Coco Schnell – #39 (guest from Newcastle Roller Girls), Calamity Pain #808, Diamond Slayher #10, Jammy Mammie #333, Khal JoJo – #H2O (guest from Newcastle Roller Girls), Looney Tunes #148, Mairi #99, Pukeahontas #92, Roxy Rebel # 31F (guest from Fierce Valley Roller Girls), Teapot Rebellion #24, Tank Girl #46, Bench – DeeDee. LUM – Shiv

We are as excited as they are to watch their first ever inARRGuration game!

GO ARRG!!!”

http://arrg.co.uk/inarrguration-game/

Pensions: Government gears up to launch 'Guidance Guarantee'

Pensions explained: minister to promote importance of retirement planning

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As the government gears up to launch its ‘Guidance Guarantee’ to help people approaching retirement make sense of pension reforms, the minister in charge of pensions is to launch the radio equivalent of a soapbox tour.

Minister for Pensions Steve Webb takes to the airwaves this week in the first of a series of radio phone-ins, in which he hopes to give local radio listeners in every part of Britain the chance to quiz him on the government’s pension reforms.

Beginning with a session on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show tomorrow, the minister will repeat his live phone-in surgery every week between now and Christmas, hitting BBC stations serving Scotland, Manchester, Newcastle and Kent.

And the minister plans to continue his commitment into the new year, aiming to cover dozens of local BBC and commercial stations ahead of April next year when major pension reforms come into effect.

The new initiative comes alongside other efforts to help the public better understand how pensions work and make it easier for people to save for the future. Today (17 November 2014), the Department for Work and Pensions also launches PensionTube, a new online hub within the video sharing website YouTube, bringing together content from the government and trusted independent sources that will in time cover the whole spectrum of pension-related issues.

And this comes ahead of a major advertising campaign, themed ‘Your Pension, Your Future’, which will be launched this week to raise awareness of reforms to the State Pension. These changes will turn it into a clearer and fairer foundation for people to build their own retirement saving upon. Minister for Pensions Steve Webb said:

“We are delivering some of the most radical reforms to our pensions system in a generation, introducing a clearer and fairer State Pension and bringing in unprecedented flexibilities that give people the freedom to make their savings work for them.

“It’s only natural that people will have questions about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and how it will affect them – and I want the chance to speak to as many of those people as possible.

“Politicians should be accessible and this is a great way for me to engage with people all over the country about pensions in a direct way.”

Dr Ros Altmann, independent pensions expert and the Government’s Business Champion for Older Workers, will be one of the first vloggers to appear on PensionTube, discussing the reforms to the State Pension for people reaching state pension age after April 2016. She said:

“The launch of PensionTube is a great idea and I’m very pleased to be one of the first contributors to this exciting new online resource. There are so many changes going on in pensions at the moment, and people need to know what’s happening.

“All the jargon surrounding pensions can be really confusing, so it is important to have a trusted and accessible source of information that people can use when they want to understand what the changes mean.

“I hope that people will get used to using this and follow all the updates as they are released. The more people can understand pensions, the better they can plan for their future.”

To watch PensionTube go to www.youtube.com/pensiontube

Granton & District Community Council meeting

RWCC (2)
Granton and District Community Council will meet on Monday 24 November at 7pm in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre. All welcome.
Check out our web site – we regularly update.
Dave McNab (Secretary, Granton and District Community Council)
http://grantonanddistrictcommunitycouncil.com/
Follow us on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/GrantonDistCC

 

Minister hails latest organ donation figures

Scotland ‘making excellent progress’

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The number of people waiting for a transplant has fallen to its lowest level since 2006, a report detailing Scotland’s organ donation record has shown. The average number of people waiting for a transplant has fallen by a quarter in the last seven years – from 793 in 2006/7 to 595 in 2013/14.

The figures, detailed in a ‘report card’ published this week by the Scottish Government, shows marked improvement in nearly all areas of the organ donation process – with donor and transplant numbers up significantly in the last few years.

This is the first time the Scottish Government has published a report card on NHS performance in this area and it is to be widely distributed to staff and patients across the country annually.

It fulfils a commitment made in the Scottish Government’s A Donation and Transplantation Plan for Scotland 2013 – 2020, to publish an annual report card on four or five key national measures on organ donation and transplantation.

The report shows that the number of living and deceased donors rose by almost 60 per cent between 2011/12 and 2013/14 and, over the same period, the number of transplants from living and deceased donors rose from 345 in a year to 425 in a year.

In addition the number of patients referred to the organ donation service has more than doubled in the last three years, meaning more patients who have expressed a wish to donate their organs after death have had those wishes honoured.

Public Health Minister Michael Matheson said: “Over the last few years we have made important strides in raising awareness of the importance of organ donation in Scotland and we have been encouraging more and more people to make their wishes known to friends and family.

“We want Scotland to be amongst the best performing countries in the world for donation and transplantation, and this year’s report shows we are continuing to make excellent progress towards this goal.

“This is thanks to every donor and every donor’s family who have demonstrated such compassion and generosity in the face of tragic and difficult circumstances. It is also testament to the work of staff across the NHS in Scotland who work tirelessly to ensure that people’s organ donation wishes are respected and that every donation counts.”

The publication also highlights the need to increase the number of families who agree for donation to go ahead – which has seen a gradual rise from 57.1 per cent in 2010/11 to 61.6 per cent in 2013/14. Around 90 more lives each year could be saved if this figure rose to 80 per cent.

Mr Matheson added: “This year our public campaign focuses on encouraging people to talk to their friends and family about their decision to donate. Letting those closest to you know your decision makes it easier for them to honour your wishes if they ever need to.”

To register or find out more visit www.organdonationscotland.org or telephone 0300 123 2323