Concerns over plan for service

C A M PA I G N E R S h a v e expressed alarm at plans to push ahead with controversial changes to St Andrews out-of-hours GP service, despite concerns the proposal has been dangerously watered down.

Members of St Andrews Community Council’s outof-hours group claimed they had not been contacted by Fife Health and Social Care Partnership about its intentions for the service, which was saved from the axe after a concerted community campaign.

They alleged the proposal was being set up to f ai l aft er it emerged nurses would be working extended periods with no GP support and the unit would close two hours earlier than agreed on Saturdays.

The partnership has insisted the model would be safe and sustainable.

Health Minister Jeane Freeman has pledged to investigate the community council’s concerns with “some urgency”.

Dr Angela Anderson, said: “We look forward to her urgent investigation.”

Penelope Fraser, vicechairwoman of St Andrews Community Council, added: “No community council has been contacted about the latest plans. Community councils across north-east Fife are alarmed the partnership seems to be determined to push forward with a seriously depleted service, despite assurances to the contrary.”

Nicky Connor, interim director with Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “We believe we have developed a model that is sustainable and we will be working to implement, on a phased basis, from November.” THE great-great-grandson of a Tayside town’s founding father has given his backing to a new heritage group.

David Lowson, who has lived in Carnoustie all his life and is still active aged 99, gave a talk to the first meeting of the Friends of Carnoustie and District Heritage.

The town’s “dibble tree” in Ferrier Street took root in 1797 when itinerant shipwright and salmon fisher Tommas Lowson left his dibble – or planting stick – embedded in the ground.

As the tree began to grow, Mr Lowson put his HALLOWEEN i s st i l l a month away but for those keen to celebrate spooky season early a new map from digital researchers may be able to help.

Edinburgh University has created a map showing the approximate l ocations where women and men accused of witchcraft lived in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Where possible, the university’s “Witchfinder General” – undergraduate student Emma Carroll – has also tried to piece together records ascertaining their fates.

Education chiefs say the project is a way of demonstrating how data can be made visual and interesting for others.

The information was sourced from historical records and uploaded to Wikidata – a database project from the team behind the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.

And the project has found 3,141 accused witches across Scotland, with scores to be found all over Tayside and Fife.

They include Grissell Jaffray, the last woman to be burned at the