The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
A different testing site
The Big Saturday General Knowledge Crossword
NHS Fife has opened an additional community testing site for people without Covid-19 symptoms, bolstering its fight against the virus. The new facility has opened at Chapel Neighbourhood Centre in Kirkcaldy, joining Glebe Centre, also in the town, and the Maxwell Centre in Cowdenbeath.
The sites provide testing for anyone who shows no symptoms associated with Covid-19 but who could be infectious and spreading the virus unknowingly. Josie Murray, NHS Fife consultant in public health and health protection clinical lead, said: “Even at this early stage of the programme, we are seeing people without symptoms testing positive for Covid-19.”
Picture by Steve Brown.
Cyclists, farmers and lorry drivers will be recruited into local partnerships as part of a national push to end all road deaths by 2050.
Road fatalities in Tayside and Fife have dropped by more than 40% in previous years.
On average, 48 people died per year between 2004 and 2008 while an average of 27 people lost their lives in accidents on the region’s roads every year between 2015 and 2019.
There were 659 reported accidents in 2019 across Dundee, Fife, Perth and Kinross and Angus – down from 943 five years earlier.
Scotland’s transport agency is moving to build upon the falls with a new “framework”. It promises to cut road fatalities in half by 2030 and eliminate them by 2050.
The plans, which are at an early stage, will create a third “local” tier in road accident management.
This will include representation from roads user groups, such as cyclists, horse riders, motorcyclists, farmers and the road haulage industry.
Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: “Deaths or serious injuries on our road network are not an inevitability. Our strong belief, shared by Scotland’s road safety partners, is that even one death on our too many.
“I know this brings no comfort to those who have lost loved ones, but the latest figures show that casualties on Scotland’s roads are at the lowest levels since records began.
“We’ve seen a 35% increase in traffic over the past 25 years and a 66% decrease in road collisions across the same period.
“We need to build on what we’ve achieved and our new framework will do so through a sharper focus, improved evaluation, mode specific targets and stronger connections between national and local levels.”
The Tayside numbers roads is one fell from 30 average deaths between 2004 and 2008 to 17 between 2015 to 2019.
In Fife, the number dropped from 18 to 10.
Over the past five years, Dundee city accidents dropped from 168 to 129. In Angus, the drop was 141 to 96.
While in Perth and Kinross the 2014 accident total dropped more than 40% to 128 in 2019.
The Scottish Government has supported its framework with £500,000 in new funding and a national marketing campaign aimed at cutting speeding on Scottish roads.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: “Reducing road deaths by half over the next 10 years is, rightly, an ambitious target and Police Scotland is committed to working closely with our road safety partners to achieve this.”
Joshua Harris, director of campaigns at road safety charity Brake, said: “We know that speeding is a significant factor in fatal and serious injury collisions and we welcome the new national campaign to educate the public around the dangers of travelling at inappropriate speeds.
“Any fall in the number of road deaths is to be welcomed but we must always remember that every road death is a preventable tragedy.”
An ambitious masterplan for a former “white elephant” factory site in Fife has been submitted for planning permission.
Up to 450 houses, a 90-bed care home, and a pub and restaurant are proposed for the former Hyundai/Freescale site in Dunfermline, which has been vacant for 13 years.
A drive-through coffee shop and a large petrol station are also on the cards.
The plan includes a £180 million super-campus comprising a new Fife College building and replacements for both Woodmill and St Columba’s high schools.
This is the subject of a separate application, submitted by Fife Council last year.
The wider proposal replaces a previous masterplan for the land in Dunfermline’s eastern expansion, which was approved in 2014.
It included a renewable energy plant, a hotel, shops and offices.
However, despite six years of marketing, no investors came forward.
Developer Shepherd Offshore says it is actively pursuing companies interested in the latest application.
Shepherd bought the Dunlin Drive site in 2010.
While 225 houses have since been built, the land is still mostly vacant.
The company is seeking planning permission in principle and says hundreds of jobs could be in the pipeline.
Detailed plans on the designs for each building will be brought a later stage.
The first of these is expected to be the Fife College masterplan.
This site has lain for 13 years.”
Dozens of people have objected amid fears the development would threaten the ancient Calais Muir woodland.
Concerns have also been raised about parking, increased traffic, wildlife and the environment.
Colliers International, which is marketing the site, said it was surrounded by a “patchwork of open space and land at various stages of development”.
The result is a “fairly fragmented environment”, it said.
The company added: “The site is in a strategic position to act as the missing link, creating forward at vacant connections through surrounding areas.
“This site has lain vacant for 13 years due to the restrictions on the use classes permitted.”
The land has repeatedly failed to deliver promised job opportunities.
It hit the headlines in 1997 when South Korean company Hyundai built a microchip plant there.
However, an economic crisis in the Far East dashed hopes of 800 jobs.
Motorola then bought the plant for £1.3 billion in 2000.
But it was branded a white elephant as electronics manufacturing jobs were sent to Eastern Europe and Asia.
The factory was dismantled without making a single microchip and the site has been on the market ever since. to the
The whirlwind romance of Rexie, the Glenrothes dinosaur has ended as abruptly and mysteriously as it started.
Locals flocked to see the popular public landmark, which sits on Caskieberran roundabout in the town, after he acquired a female companion on Valentine’s Day.
Rexie’s girlfriend had appeared alongside the 10foot tall T-Rex sculpture overnight and without warning, causing much speculation as to where it had come from and who was responsible.
That mystery was later solved when it was revealed that Stella had been kidnapped from her owners’ garden in Kinghorn by pranksters wanting to play Cupid, by transporting it seven miles to be at Rexie’s side.
Now the six foot model has mysteriously reappeared back in the garden from where it was taken leaving its owners, Liz and JP Easton, scratching their heads at the latest affair.
“We were heartbroken when we woke up on Valentine’s Day to find that Stella had disappeared,” said JP, who had created the T-Rex model along with a second dinosaur as the family’s entry into a local community competition in the summer.
“Stella had proved popular with local youngsters who used to visit every day so we thought it had been someone local who had removed her.
“We couldn’t believe it when we saw the photographs of her in Glenrothes with Rexie and realised that someone had gone to all that trouble kidnapping our model for a joke, even adding a bunch of roses in Rexie’s mouth.”
Former Glenrothes town artist, Malcolm Robertson, who created the Rexie in 1980, said he was delighted to hear the sculpture was still bringing joy to the town 40 years later.
He added: “Who would have thought that all these twist in the love years after I made him that he’s still making the news and putting a smile on people’s face.
“As an artist you always endeavour to create a piece that gains favour with the public and Rexie has certainly done that.
“It’s wonderful to hear he’s doing well and his existence is still evolving.”
Liz and JP had planned to collect their model from the roundabout.
However, they were saved the job after they discovered Stella back in their garden wrapped in silver tinsel.
JP admitted he is yet to find out who is behind the prank but suspects it may be a work colleague at Fife Council having a laugh.
“I thought someone would have owed up by now but we are still in the dark,” said JP.
“Following the romance we are wondering if we’ll be soon hearing the sound of little dinosaur feet of Stella and Rexie’s offspring.
“I wouldn’t rule it out given the bizarre nature of the last couple of weeks.”
Shamima Begum cannot return to the UK to pursue an appeal against the removal of her British citizenship, the Supreme Court has ruled.
Ms Begum was 15 when she and two other east London schoolgirls travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group (IS) in February 2015.
Her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
Ms Begum, now 21, is challenging the Home Office’s decision to remove her British citizenship and wants to be allowed to return to the UK to pursue her appeal.
In July last
Court of Appeal year, ruled the that
“the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal”.
The Home Office challenged that decision at the Supreme Court in November, arguing that allowing her to return to the UK “would create significant national security risks” and expose the public to “an increased risk of terrorism”.
The UK’s highest court ruled yesterday that Ms Begum should not be granted leave to enter the UK to pursue her appeal against the deprivation of her British citizenship.
Announcing the decision, Lord Reed said: “The Supreme Court unanimously allows all of the Home Secretary’s appeals and dismisses Ms Begum’s cross-appeal.”
The president of the Supreme Court said: “The right to a fair hearing does not trump all other considerations, such as the safety of the public.
“If a vital public interest makes it impossible for a case to be fairly heard then the courts cannot ordinarily hear it.
“The appropriate response to the problem in the present case is for the deprivation hearing to be stayed – or postponed – until Ms Begum is in a position to play an effective part in it without the safety of the public being compromised.
“That is not a perfect solution, as it is not known how long it may be before that is possible.
“But there is no perfect solution to a dilemma of the present kind.”
Montrose Poppy Appeal organisers have registered a record 2020 in an “amazing” show of local generosity during the pandemic.
Despite the challenges of the lockdown, volunteers were thrilled to raise £15,509 in their most successful year to date.
Appeal spokesperson Ally Hutchison said: “With a population in Montrose of 12,100 that is an amazing achievement.”
The result has buoyed the town team for 2021 after it became the first in Scotland to sign up for the 2021 Poppy Pledge, commemorating the centenary of the first cloth poppies being created to remember the fallen of the First World War.
Mr Hutchison
“We have pledged added: to raise £1,921 before November 2021 and will run an online auction with donations from some of our wonderful poppy partners and a bucket collection in support of Armed Forces Day on Saturday June 26.”
Poppy partner Arbroathbased Toll House Spirits are working on a range of new products which will also raise funds for Poppy Scotland.
With a launch planned for the spring, these new spirits will carry the official Poppy Scotland logo with £1 per bottle going straight to the appeal throughout this centenary year.
More than nine million cloth poppies were made to go on sale from November 11 1921.
However, such was the nation’s desire to remember those lost during the Great War that they sold out almost immediately.
The first Poppy appeal raised more than £106,000 nationwide, with funds used to help veterans find jobs and homes.
Last week the Dunfermline branch of the Scottish Poppy Appeal announced they had raised £40,000 this year, despite fears the pandemic would see donations plummet.
Poppyscotland’s head of fundraising Gordon Michie said: “To continue that success in such challenging circumstances is a huge achievement.”
That is an amazing achievement