mastrick matters autumn2011

mastrick mattersAutumn Edition 2011

Inside this issue:

SUMMERTIME Playscheme Pics

WISHAW GAMES11 Medal Haul

FAMILY FUNGala Day

BUS SERVICESCampaign

CONTENTS

Supported By

EditorialThe content inside Mastrick Matters is a fine represen-tation of the activities and events which happen on a daily or weekly basis in our community. We are a vibrant and creative community with a big heart.

Mastrick Matters is here to give a voice to the citizens of Mastrick. We all have something to say about our com-munity, whether it’s about bin collections, seagulls, traffic or discussing the more positive aspects such as our artistic and musical talent. We now have an opportunity to ensure all of our community has an input.

If you have any articles for the Autumn edition then please get in touch with Mary Clare at Station House Media Unit (SHMU) 01224 515013 or

email [email protected]

Happy Reading!

2 Editorial

3 Operation Trinity

4 Wishaw Games

Boys Brigade

5 Summer Playschemes

6 & 7 Morrisons,Tesco,Traffic

8 & 9 Family Fun Day

10 Bus Services

11 CAP

12 Are You Special?

13 Smoke Free Homes & Cars

14 SHMU

15 Mastrick Community Centre

Family Learning Updates

16 Community Contacts

To view the new

Mastrick Matters in

colour please visit

www.shmu.org.uk

& on the ‘print’ page

mastrick mattersAutumn Edition 2011

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5 10

6&7

8&9

mastrick matters : Community News

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Grampian Police launched an intelli-gence-led operation on 12 June 2011, in response to the annual problem of motorcycle nuisance, which is often highlighted to the police by residents.

Operation Trinity consists of a dedi-cated team of officers, supported by Roads Policing officers and City Wardens. The purpose of the opera-tion is to target those causing a nuisance to communities by riding motorcycles in an illegal, and very often, highly dan-gerous way.

Inspector Stuart Ord, who is over-seeing the operation told the Mirror “Our ‘Local Policing - Closer To You’ model ensures that communities are better served in relation to the con-cerns they have. The antisocial use of motorcycles is a recurring problem for many of Aberdeen’s residents and this operation focuses on those involved.”

“While there is a majority of law-abiding motorcyclists, there is also a minority who bring attention to their behaviour.”

“Riding motorcycles in a manner that includes speeding, riding over foot-paths and across open land without the correct documentation, without wearing suitable protective equipment carries a huge risk to the public, as well as the riders themselves.”

“Operation Trinity Officers are using all means at their disposal, including the seizure of uninsured motorcycles, to combat these type of riders.”

Operation Trinity has three strands. These are, Disruption, Detection and Diversion.

“We encourage the residents of the affected communities to work with us to disrupt those involved in this behav-iour by telling us who they are, and where they are keeping their bikes.”

“We will then be able to act on this information to provide greater patrols in the affected areas and effectively detect the offenders and bring them to justice.”

“Finally, we will work towards divert-ing offenders away from this problem behaviour by helping them to make alternative choices to offending.”

During the first seven weeks of Operation Trinity, 55 people were reported to either the Procurator Fiscal or the Children’s Reporter in connection with a variety of Road Traffic Offences and the initiative has also led to 20 motorbikes being seized by police.

The diversion scheme piloted during Operation Trinity is the Rural Urban Training Scheme (RUTS), which aims to stimulate positive life choices and reduce offending, antisocial activities and risk taking behaviour in young people.

Using motorcycles as a focus, RUTS provides alternative curriculum edu-cation and training to young people through a practical programme of activities.

As part of RUTS’ MotoLearn project, 14 to 19 year olds can get their hands dirty covering such subjects as health and safety, motorcycle mechan-ics, first aid, road safety, motorcycles and society as well as issues such as employability and progression routes to further learning.

The RUTS programme in Aberdeen was run from Monday 8 to Friday 12 August 2011 at Northfield Academy and saw six young lads from across the city taking part.

Iain Bell, RUTS Assistant Manager, said “We use motorcycles and motorcycle related skills and issues to act as a focus in providing support and direction to young people. We promote building pathways to social inclusion.”

“When Grampian Police contacted us, we were very keen to come on board to work with the young people in Aberdeen. The youngsters involved have been extremely positive, with 100% attendance from the first day, and from a RUTS perspective meet-ing the local youth and delivering the programme in Aberdeen has been a great experience.”

The MotoLearn programme is pre-dominantly delivered in a garage/workshop environment but elements are also provided in an off road setting which is being hosted by the Forestry Commission at Fetteresso.

Inspector Ord concluded “Operation Trinity demonstrates that we listen to what our communities tell us and respond to the issues raised.”

“We have seven dedicated Officers to tackle the problem, but we still need the help of the communities affected. I urge people to call us on 0845 600 5 700, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 and report incidents of this type. With the flow of information coming in we can actively target those engaged in this behaviour and see that they face consequences for their actions.”

Operation Trinity Launched in Aberdeen

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The Boys’ Brigade Organisation began in Glasgow on 4th. October 1883 and is now a multicultural world-wide organisation, still firmly grounded in its connection with the Church. It is the oldest of the uniformed youth organisations.

Our Company was enrolled by the Aberdeen and District Battalion on 6th. December 1955 and has been working with boys and young men in Mastrick and Sheddocksley ever since. We are part of the youth outreach of Mastrick Parish Church of Scotland.

The structure of the organisation caters for boys and young men from Primary one through to Secondary six.

Our Company is divided into three Sections, the Anchor Boys (Primary 1 to 3), Junior (Primary 4 to 6) and Company/Senior (for Primary 7 to Secondary 6).

All normal Section meetings are held on a Monday evening in Mastrick Parish Church Hall, Greenfern Road, Mastrick, Aberdeen AB16 6TR.

Session 2011-2012 began on Monday 29th. August 2011 with a ‘drop in’ enrolment evening and information session for parents in the Church Hall.

Normal Section Meetings resumed on Monday 5th. September 2011, in the Church Hall at the following times:

ANCHOR BOY SECTION – for boys in Primary 1 – 3, from 6:00 pm to 7:00pm.

JUNIOR SECTION – for boys in Primary 4-6, from 7:15pm to 8:45 pm.

COMPANY/SENIOR SECTION - For boys and young men in Primary 7 and of Secondary School age, from 7:15pm to 8:45pm.

Further details about the work of the Company can be obtained from:

Malcolm MacLennan, Captain 103 Earn’s Heugh Circle, Cove Bay, Aberdeen AB12 3RW, Tel: 01224 871046 or 07919 106665, Email: [email protected] www.beehive.thisisnorthscotland.co.uk/67AberdeenBB

www.facebook.com/67Aberdeenbb

Our club DISSC goes to the Wishaw Games each August and this year we took out our biggest squad ever, with thirteen bowlers and two table-tennis players.

One of our bowlers, who featured in our last magazine, also takes part in the swimming com-petitions on the following day. Lisa Hendry, who recently joined our squad, came with us this year and won a gold medal at the first time of asking! We are all proud of everyone in the squad who took part in the competition this year.

Our squad this year came home with a grand eleven medals, five of those were won by Ian Urquhart who some will remember was fea-tured in the last issue of Mastrick Matters.

Here is a full list of our medal winners:

Alex Rae Gold Medal Table Tennis

Kara Hendry Gold Medal Table Tennis

Lisa Hendry Gold Medal Carpet Bowls

Grace McKenzie Gold Medal Carpet Bowls

Bryan McKenzie Silver Medal Carpet Bowls

Angie Mitchell Bronze Medal Carpet Bowls

Ian Urquhart 3 Silver Medals Swimming 2 Bronze Medals Swimming

Wishaw Games Winners


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Mastrick Summer Playschemes are organised by volunteers from Mastrick Community Centre and meet during the school Summer Holidays. The under 5’s had a total of six sessions each lasting for 1½ hours with various activities including, arts and crafts, cooking, music and movement to name a few. They also had two trips organised, the first was to Lochinch Farm for a mini beastie hunt and the second was to Montrose Beach Splash. Pictures are from the Under 12’s playscheme.

I really enjoyed both

the sessions and the

trips.

Very well organised

M y d a u g h t e r especially enjoyed the music and movement session and she also enjoyed the trips.

As our summer was not great, my children e n j o y ed a l l t h e activities and getting out to meet with the other children

We were looking forward to the mini beast hunt, but because of the weather we went to hoodles instead.I enjoyed the outdoor activities more than my son did, it was great!

The following quotes were from parent/carers who attended the playscheme this year.

Summer Playschemes at Mastrick Community Centre

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For years the west of Aberdeen (which includes our area) has been the only part of the city lacking a supermarket, resulting in the need for people to travel further afield to Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons elsewhere in the city, either that or accept limited choice and higher prices. Lidl and Farmfoods are great and we’re really fortunate to have them, but we really need to compliment them with a supermarket on a par with Asda at Bridge of Dee, Tesco at Danestone, Sainsburys at Berryden or Morrisons at West North Street, which would give us excellent choice on our doorsteps.

A Tesco store was approved at Rousay Drive in November 2008 which was to open prior to Christmas 2009 but we’re still waiting for them to make a start. The latest pro-posal comes from Morrisons for a supermarket on the old Summerhill Academy site and the planning application was recently lodged with the Council.

We’ve been screaming out for a supermarket for so long that perhaps we should have been careful what we wished for, as we surely don’t want two so close together on such a busy road. The Community Council has no preference for Tesco or Morrisons but have serious concerns that the Langstracht will grind to a halt if they both go ahead. The situation with Tesco remains unclear as they have said they are going ahead but three years after gaining permission they have yet to start work on the site.. It is our belief that they will go ahead if the Morrisons application is turned down but may pull out if Morrisons get the go ahead.

The Community Council supported the Tesco application on the basis that the Summerhill Academy site had been deemed unsuitable for retail use at that time. Since then the Council has changed its mind and has agreed to sell the site to Morrisons if they get Planning Permission. Tesco can build their store if they want to so we need to accept that we are where we are and try to minimise the traffic impact of a second supermarket.

We are supportive of a supermarket on the Summerhill Academy site if the roads issues can be dealt with, oth-erwise we feel it has to be turned down to avoid the Langstracht grinding to a halt, preventing residents getting to and from work in a reasonable amount of time at busy times of the day. We will be making our concerns known to the Council when the application is lodged. It’s no more than common sense to say that the whole Langstracht needs to be upgraded to improve the flow of traffic as minor junction improvements will do little to address the problem.

The intention is for a single road for entrance and exit for both customers and goods vehicles. This road would be a continuation of Fernhill Drive. As you enter the store it would have a petrol station on the right, though this may only be accessible to traffic exiting the store. A car park would accommodate 450-500 cars on one level. The store would be on a single level (with office space on an upper level) and there would be a recycling centre on the site. The store would be slightly larger than their King

Morrisons, Tesco and Traffic: Your Chance To Have Your Say!


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Street store and would also feature a fresh food market. It is expected the store will be open from 7am to 11pm.

It is intended that deliveries will take place 24 hours a day, so we’re going to ask for this to be limited to their opening hours. In addition we’re going to ask for the floodlighting to be switched off when the store is closed and for the recycling centre to be located away from housing. These requests are all designed to minimise disruption to people living next to the site and hopefully ensure they can con-tinue to get a good night’s sleep. Other than that, we’ve no real concerns about the proposals on the site itself. Our main concerns relate to the impact of the development outwith the site.

We feel that a fund needs to be set up for contributions from Morrisons and other developers intending building large housing schemes at the far end of the Langstracht adjoining existing housing at Sheddocksley and Summerhill and other developments impacting on the Langstracht. This fund would then be used to fund an upgrade of the road along its entire length. We have already asked the Council to produce a Langstracht Planning Brief in order to deliver this necessary upgrade and are awaiting a reply.

Another thing we will be asking for is a replacement com-munity centre for Summerhill to replace the busy centre which used to operate from the site. Summerhill currently has nothing by way of community facilities following the closure of the centre.

We would expect people to be very much in favour of this application but would ask you to support our concerns about the need for the entire length of the Langstracht to be upgraded to accommodate the extra traffic. Support for a replacement community centre for Summerhill would also be appreciated. Mastrick Community Centre is bulg-ing at the seams with groups from Summerhill having been decanted there and they really need their own space, which would free up capacity for new groups, or additional ses-sions of existing groups, at Mastrick. If we want to sort out the traffic situation and the community facilities it needs to be done as part of the Planning process. It doesn’t mean you’re against the supermarket, just that these issues need to be sorted out to make the new development work well and address any negative issues it may create.

Regardless of whether or not you share our views, please write to the Council and let them know what you think. You can write to Head of Planning and Sustainable Development, Aberdeen City Council, Business Hub 4, Marischal College, Broad Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1AB, email [email protected] or comment via the link sup-plied on the previous page. The closing date for comments is 21st October 2011. Together we can try to ensure get a supermarket but also badly needed road improvements and Summerhill gets back its community centre.

The plans can be viewed online at: http://planning.aberdeencity.gov.uk/PlanningDetail.asp?ref=111468

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This year Mastrick, Sheddocksley & Summerhill Community Council joined forces with Sheddocksley Baptist Church to host a truly spectacular day for all the family. The half day event was held on 20th August in the grounds of Sheddocksley Baptist Church and was attended by around 600 people from across the area. This is the third we’ve done in the last couple of years and the Baptist Church have a few under their belt too.

These type of events are a great opportunity for a great day out for “kids” of all ages. They bring our community together in a relaxed setting and offer a great opportunity to meet new friends and catch up with old ones. The kids get the most out of them, and in order to make things affordable for families, many of our activities are free and the others are at minimal cost. Nobody leaves without a smile on their face!

Norman Macleod of STV kindly opened the event for us and the cafe was buzzing with a combination of SHMU’s Phluxxy and Phazee on the music decks, and live enter-tainment on the stage. It was a real carnival atmosphere enjoyed by everyone who came along.

There were a number of stalls including CFINE, who sold out all their strawberries, CLAN cancer support service,

NE Scotland Credit Union, Victim Support and Parents as Early Education Partners (PEEP) amongst others. There was also a Police information centre and the Church’s Pastors’ Bus.

Just for the kids there was a bouncy castle, bungee run (invaded by my four year old at one point), a climbing wall and the longest ever queues for face painting. Shelagh and Linda’s burgers were well worth the wait and the Church had lovely teas, coffees and cakes on offer too. Even the funeral director was welcome with his limo full of balloons and a very generous £40 Toys R Us voucher to the person who guessed the number of balloons. As he left I wished him well and hoped I wouldn’t be needing his assistance for a few more years!

So what are we planning for next year? Lets allow Shelagh and the team time to get over this one first! Rest assured there will be more events in our area in the future and you’ll be the first to know through Mastrick Matters. In the meantime we’d like to thank everyone at Sheddocksley Baptist Church for making this possible, and all our own trusty volunteers for all their hard work.

Article by Steve Delaney

Mastrick, Sheddocksley & Summerhill Family Fun Day


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As part of the voluntary team that organised the

family day on Saturday 20th August, I would

like to say a big thank you to all who gave their

time and effort in making it a memorable day.

The weather was good to us, and a huge

thank you also goes out to all members of

the community who attended the event, without

whom it would not have been such a success.

Shelagh Thomson

Community Councillor: Mastrick, Sheddocksley,

Summerhill Community Council

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If you travel by bus you will be well aware of the deterio-ration in services across Aberdeen since 2008. Bus fares used to be the biggest gripe, but at least the buses used to be nice and regular and usually on time. All that fell apart when the changed the routes in 2008.

In 2010 the Community Council decided enough was enough, especially with regard to the 23 route which commonly saw 2-3 buses arriving together after 30-40 minutes, sometimes longer. Currently the biggest problem is the No 13route which was reduced from a 15 minute frequency to half hourly. Bad as that is, what’s worse is that it still doesn’t run to time and this is totally unacceptable.

Private bus companies operating local routes need an oper-ator’s licence from the Traffic Commissioner for Scotland. They must register routes and timetables with the Traffic Commissioner and must adhere to these or they can be faced with fines, disqualification of directors or even risk losing their licence. However, the Traffic Commissioner can only make them comply with registered routes and timetables, there is no power over their choice of routes or the frequency of their timetables.

In 2010 Steve Delaney, our Chairman, wrote to the Traffic Commissioner regarding the poor timekeeping on all routes, but especially the 23 which was pretty much unus-able. A Public Inquiry was called and First were brought before the Traffic Commissioner and Steve gave evidence at the inquiry. The outcome was that First were given a warning about their performance and, in all fairness, changes to their timetables did get more buses running

on time and the situation is much better than it had been, but certainly not perfect.

Earlier this year First introduced reduced frequencies on a number of routes, with the 25 now hourly and the 13 half hourly. Checking through the changes it became clear that there’s now 8 bus routes across the city (including these two) which operate on a 30 minute service (or worse) during daytime hours. We believe this is unacceptable.

After contacting the Council in May this year and receiving no response, Steve has once again written to the Traffic Commissioner asking for action to be taken regarding the punctuality of the 13 route and he has discussed our concerns with First’s Managing Director. We would urge you to help us by reporting buses running late by more than 5 minutes (on any route) to First Aberdeen, either by telephone, letter or through their website. You should also bring these matters to the attention of the Traffic Commissioner’s Office, based at The Stamp Office, 10 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG.

The Community Council is committed to continue the campaign for better bus services in our area. The service we had come to enjoy is no longer meeting the reasonable expectations of the travelling public and this has to change, otherwise our concern is that we’ll see 30 minute fre-quencies on many more routes as First seek to minimise their costs and maximise their profits. Please look out for further announcements and remember nothing’s going to change unless you get behind us and support what we’re trying to achieve.

Bus Services In Our Area


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Do you know about the Customer Access Points?

There are three Customer Access Points in Aberdeen situated in Kincorth, Mastrick and Woodside. They are the accessible face of the council in our communities. At the Customer Access Points we try to deal effectively with your enquiries and have a large range of services and infor-mation on offer:

Applying for Disabled Badges (Blue and green) •

Applying for Access to leisure•

Applying for an Accord Card /National Entitlement •Card;

Bioliners for your food waste caddies;•

Booking a bulky item uplift; •

Council housing and council tax forms•

Dog waste bags for sale;•

Education Maintenance Allowance; •

Making a Goodapple Housing application; •

Making garden maintenance payments; •

Parking/garage/allotment spaces.•

Pay any Aberdeen City Council bill;•

Paying any parking fines due; •

Paying Rent and Council Tax ;•

Recycling and bin collection Calendars; •

Reporting a housing repair;•

Reporting road/pavements defects, street light faults;•

Sale of Multi- journey tickets for the community bus•

Sale of school dinner tickets;•

School clothing and footwear applications; •

All payments can be made with cash, debit and credit cards (1.6% admin fee charged) and cheque

Contact details:

Mastrick Customer Access Point Spey Road Aberdeen AB16 6SH Phone: 01224 788503

The Council Face in the Community

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Grampian Police are looking to recruit more Special Constables to provide additional support to local polic-ing teams and communities. Are you Special?

Special Constables are trained volunteers who support and assist regular police officers carry out their duties. They wear the same uniform as regular police officers and have the same powers and responsibilities and can be called upon to assist in all areas of police work including patrols, community engagement, specialist operations, attending incidents and royal visits.

They can report for duty at any mutually-convenient time on a regular or irregular basis, depending on their work or lifestyle commitments. Some of the Force's Special Constables work in the evenings or at weekends. Others prefer to be on duty during the day.

Many Special Constables choose to work in the area where they live so that they can become more involved in their community. Others choose to work away from the area they live in, in order to keep their private lives and their police duties separate.

Inspector Inspector Shona Stewart, Local Policing Inspector for Mastrick said: "Special Constables are an extremely valuable resource who make a vital contribution to our

policing activities. Those who volunteer as a Special get a lot of satisfaction from helping make a difference to their community whilst improving their career prospects from the skills they develop working on the beat."

Specials Constables are unpaid although a £1100 award is available if Specials join the recognition award scheme which requires a person to work a minimum of 45 four hour shifts over a 12 month period and attend some train-ing nights.

Anyone interested in becoming a Special Constable can contact Sergeant Ian Chalmers on 0845 600 5700 or visit www.grampian.police.uk

Are you Special?

The health benefits of breast-feeding for Mothers and babies has been well researched; benefits include reduced risk of allergies for children, reduced risk of certain cancers for women who breast-feed and the promotion of positive attachment between mother and baby. Despite these facts, breast-feeding rates are still low across Scotland.

In an effort to offer women support should they choose to breast-feed, NHS Grampian are coordinating a 12 month pilot project focusing on one area in the City. We are looking to recruit women who are enthusiastic about breast-feeding and supporting other Mums, and who have breast-fed their own children for at least 6 weeks in the past as volunteers to offer breast-feeding support to new Mums.

Volunteers would receive 20 hours of FREE training from the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) and 6 follow up sessions which would lead to the volunteers gaining a recognised qualification as well as being reimbursed for expenses incurred. Following training, volunteers would

then be expected to make a commitment to offer breast-feeding support to Mums who are referred by health visitors and community midwives for the duration of the project (12 months).

If you think you can:

Attend 20 hours of training over 8 weeks•

Make a commitment for 12 months to offer support•

Work with health professionals•

Attend breast-feeding workshops, visit women in their •homes or offer advice over the phone

Or, if you would just like some more information about this opportunity, please contact:

Joanne Riach, NHS breast-feeding coordinator at [email protected] or 01224 558 670.

Supporting Women to Breast-feedVolunteering Opportunity for Women


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About the Project

NHS Grampian in Partnership with Grampian Fire & Rescue Service and Aberdeen City Council has devel-oped a pilot project to encourage parents to protect their families from second-hand smoke by making a commitment to one of the following promises:

Step One: Make your home and car completely smoke free at all times, so that your children (and any adults) will be healthier.

Step Two: If step one is too difficult, restrict smoking to one well ventilated room or area and never smoke in front of your children in the home. Although your family will still be affected by second-hand smoke, it will hopefully be less harmful and discourage your children from becoming smokers when they are adults.

What is second-hand smoke?

The smoke blown out when someone is smoking a ciga-rette and the smoke from the end of a burning cigarette is known as Second-hand Smoke. The fine particles from smoke linger, spread to other rooms and stick to every

surface and everyone.

Smoke from a cigarette contains over 4000 chemicals most of which are dangerous, some causing cancer. These chem-icals don’t need to be inhaled directly from the cigarette to cause harm so not only cause problems to smokers but also to those around them.

Why is it dangerous for my Children?

Because children breathe faster, their lungs and immune systems are still developing, their little hands touch eve-rything they are much more vulnerable to the effects of second-hand smoke.

What can I do?

If you are a parent and interested in trying to create a healthier environment for your family, you could ring the following number to request a help pack: 01224 555 336

Or, if you are a professional working with families and would like to know more about our training programme, please call the same number and we will get back to you.

Smoke Free Homes and Cars Project

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t 01224 515013 | e [email protected] | w www.shmu.org.uk

Station House Media Unit (shmu) is situated just off Great Northern Road in the old Station House Community Centre, Woodside. We offer free access to, and training in, video and radio production and magazine and online publications to residents of all ages living in Seaton, Woodside, Middlefield, Tillydrone, Torry, Northfield and Cummings Park.

shmuTRAINshmuTRAIN offers unique employability and skills development courses which support people into work, education or training. Community and digital media, including radio and video, is used to help develop core skills such as com-munication, confidence and team work.

POSITIVE TRANSITIONS VIII

Celebrate Aberdeen

“It was a great turnout and good for the city, the best bit was seeing all the different charities involved and being part of the SHMU Team”

Gary Cheyne - shmu Volunteer

On Saturday the 11th June, the SHMU volunteers marched down Union Street as part of the ‘Celebrate Aberdeen’ parade. The parade was organised by ACVO to recognise all the hard work being carried out by the voluntary sector in Aberdeen.

shmuFMshmuFM offers training and support to volunteers so they can produce and present a variety of issue-based, music and community program-ming shows on 99.8fm.

The next series of beginner courses begin on the following dates:

25th October from 7pm to 9pm

27th October from 2pm to 4pm

If you are interested in learning more about any of our courses, please call shmu at (01224) 515013 or email us at [email protected] or just text the word TRAINING and your name to 60300.

The SHMU contingent was made up of volunteers including Radio Presenters, Editorial Team Members, The Youth Radio Project (YRP), shmuTRAINees as well as shmu staff.

PositiveTransitions is a fantastic opportunity for 16-19 year olds who are not in education, employment or training to take part in a 12 week course.

shmuWORKS is a fantastic opportunity for 18-25 year olds who are not in education, employment or training to take part in a 6 week training programme.

TRAINING IN THE STUDIO


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Family LearningChallenge Grandparent, a group supported by Family Learning, went climbing recently with 4 adults and 4 children attending.

The children were first to take to the side wall and grappled their way across with no problems. Needless to say the adults were less keen….moving across to the small climbing walls, eve-ryone gave it their best with the children doing particularly well having none of the nerves of the adults!

Many thanks to the staff at Transition Extreme for showing us the ropes!

Hi Pam! What do you do? Hi, I’m the chairperson of the Mastrick Community Centre Management Committee.

Tell us a bit about yourself? I live in Heatheryfold, Aberdeen. I am thirty one years of age and have two children. One aged fourteen years and the other is five years old. I have attended groups at Mastrick Community Centre for the last fourteen years, ever since my first child was born.

Who can be on the Management Committee? Anyone with an interest in making a difference within the community, who is committed and willing to give their time.

What does the committee do? We make decisions on the centre programmes, activities, arrange fund raising and support the day to day running of the centre.

Why do community centres need a committee? All community centres are transferring to leased centres, therefore the management committee will run the cen-tres. We will still have minimal support from council staff, but in order to ensure the community centre survives a strong management committee is required.

What do you get from being a committee member? Chance to develop skills, meet new people, be active within the community, make decisions and have a say in the community.

How do you become involved with the committee? You can enquire in the centre or come along to open meetings, check the notice board for meeting dates.

What is the latest news on the community centre? The lease agreement is still in the process with Aberdeen city council, groups ongoing just as before apart from no creches at the moment and only morning playgroups.

Due to cuts in staff and hours the management commit-tee are working with staff who are left at the centre to ensure the running of the centre.

Please contact the office if you have any queries on 788288

An Interview with Pam Farmery

You are never too old to improve your confi-dence and assertiveness. This 8 session course will offer you the opportunity to gain skills and tips to break old habits, say ‘no’ and mean it, take a more assertive role in your everyday life and possibly change you forever.

The course begins late October 2011. To find out more or book a place call Family Learning on tel: 260028.

Do the words ‘can you help me with my home-work’ fill you with dread? This 6 session course will show you how your child learns maths and language in school and how you are helping at home without even knowing it. So why not come along and join in because believe it or not maths and language can be fun!

This course begins in late January 2012. To find our more or book a place call Family Learning on tel: 260028.

Confidence and Assertiveness Course

Maths and Language for Parents

Local Ward Councillors

Councillor Len Ironside (Kingswells/Sheddocksley Ward) 01224 523059Lord Provost, Councillor Peter Stephen (Kingswells/Sheddocksley Ward) 01224 522637Councillor Wendy Stuart (Kingswells/Sheddocksley Ward) 01224 522204Councillor Jackie Dunbar (Northfield Ward) 01224 522522Councillor Gordon Graham (Northfield Ward) 01224 523594Councillor Kevin Stewart (Northfield Ward) 01224 522540

Local Community Group Contacts

Steve Delaney, Chair, Mastrick and Sheddocksley Community Council 01224 694469

Local Council Services/Community Centre Contacts

Mastrick Young Peoples Project 01224 346356Mastrick Community Centre 01224 788288Sheddocksley Community Centre 01224 684200

Aberdeen City Council

Main Switchboard 08456 080910Minicom number for hearing impaired callers 01224 522381Anti-Social Behaviour Team (between 9 am and 4 am) 08456 066548Housing Repairs (during office hours) 08456 080929Housing Repairs (out with office hours) 01224 480281Environmental Services (roads, lighting, litter etc) 08456 080919

Partner Agencies

Scottish Water (faults relating to sewerage or sewage) 08456 018855Grampian Police (non emergency call centre) 08456 005700Grampian NHS 0845 456 6000Bear Scotland (maintenance of trunk roads) 08005 871107

Useful Web Pages/Emails

Community Planning in Aberdeen www.communityplanningaberdeen.org.ukAberdeen City Council www.aberdeencity.gov.ukGrampian Police www.grampian.police.ukNHS Grampian www.nhsgrampian.orgGrampian Fire & Rescue Service www.grampianfrs.org.uk

Local Contacts

mastrick matters

mastrick matters autumn2011

Documents

operation trinity officers

new mastrick matters

citizens of mastrick

creative community

riding motorcycles

community news3grampian

problem behaviour

affected communities